S.Amdt. 5972

SA 5972, submitted by Mr. Schiff, aims to add a section to bill S. 4784 regarding limitations and requirements for offshore wind energy projects.

The purpose of this amendment is to restrict the Secretary of Defense from stopping or objecting to these projects under certain conditions:

• Prior Approvals: The Secretary of Defense cannot object to, pause, or recommend the suspension or revocation of leases, easements, rights-of-way, or construction and operations plans if they previously signed off on them or found no unmitigable adverse impact. This includes a rule that radar clutter or operational inconveniences that can be handled via software filtering, data-sharing, or other reasonable measures are not considered unmitigable adverse impacts.

• New Objections: For any new offshore wind project, the Secretary of Defense cannot issue an objection regarding national security, radar systems, or Armed Forces operations without first sending a report to the appropriate committees of Congress. This report must include:

  • An unclassified summary of the specific, quantifiable, and newly emergent threat.
  • Evidence that the conflict or radar interference cannot be fixed through different deployment strategies.
  • A certified cost-benefit analysis that weighs the national security risk against the risk to energy grid resilience and the economic impact of cancelling the project.

• Mandatory Collaboration: The Secretary of Defense cannot finalize an objection or halt a project unless they have spent at least 180 days in good-faith negotiations with the developer to find technical mitigations and can prove that all such mitigations are technically unfeasible.