Onshore wind energy development - and the economic boost it provides - would be banned across much of eastern North Carolina under legislation filed Wednesday by Sen. Harry Brown in the name of unnecessary “protection” for military readiness.
Senate Bill S377, “Military Base Protection Act,” would block the construction, operation or expansion of wind energy facilities in all or part of 29 counties designated on a map entitled “Vertical Obstruction Impact on the NC Military Mission.” Those counties include Pasquotank and Perquimans.
The Amazon East Wind Farm, which began operating in February 2017, stretches across 22,000 acres of Pasquotank and Perquimans counties and is the single largest property taxpayer in each.
“Wind energy has been a proven financial boost in two Tier I counties in northeastern North Carolina, from the time construction began on the Amazon wind farm until today,” said Erin Carey, the N.C. Sierra Club’s coastal conservation program coordinator. “That wind farm was sited and approved after an extensive review that included the Department of Defense Siting Clearinghouse.
“The DoD Siting Clearinghouse exists precisely to provide the direct oversight necessary to protect any current or anticipated military activities in the United States, including and beyond the aviation training mentioned in S 377. There is no need for the state to second-guess the Pentagon’s own experts on whether any proposed wind farm would impede military activities,” Carey said.