Overview
- The Defense Department has paused approvals for about 165 onshore wind farms on private land, a freeze industry sources say covers roughly 30 gigawatts of planned capacity.
- Developers say letters in early April stated the Pentagon is reassessing how it evaluates national security risks from energy projects.
- Projects in limbo span many stages, including 35 awaiting final sign-off, about 30 with verbal approvals pending paperwork, roughly 50 in talks, and about 50 that were typically cleared as low risk.
- These reviews check whether turbines could disrupt military radar, which is often addressed by updating radar filters or other technical fixes that developers fund.
- Since August 2025, developers report canceled meetings, long silences, and applications that the Pentagon stopped processing, a pattern that echoes earlier offshore wind fights that drew lawsuits and taxpayer payouts near $2 billion.