[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 20, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2472-S2473]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HOLD ON DEFENSE DEPARTMENT NOMINATIONS

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, last year, several of my colleagues and I 
wrote to Secretary Gates requesting a clear policy through which the 
Department of Defense would encourage renewable energy development 
while maintaining necessary protections for military missions. Among 
other recommendations, to facilitate the development of renewable 
energy projects consistent with national security needs, we 
specifically pointed to the Department's need to formally consolidate 
all decisionmaking into a single office to limit unnecessary conflict 
between the Department and renewable energy development. At that time, 
there were a wide array of projects where the Department of Defense had 
objected very late in the permitting process.
  Since that time, conflicts between the siting of renewable energy 
projects and defense missions have only intensified in scale and now 
threaten to impede currently planned and permitted renewable energy 
projects, placing billions of investment dollars and thousands of new 
U.S. jobs at risk. Recent attempts to work with DOD for various

[[Page S2473]]

compromise and alternative solutions, such as expanding current radar 
capability, has produced few results.
  For example, in my State of Oregon, the planned Shepherds Flat Wind 
Farm would produce more than 850 megawatts of electricity. It would be 
the largest wind farm in the world. Planners worked with numerous 
Federal agencies and cleared the project with the Navy. But just a 
month before groundbreaking, the Air Force halted the project because 
they believe it could potentially interfere with a radar array in 
eastern Oregon. Attempts to work with DOD, by the planners and by my 
office, have met with stiff resistance and no offers of compromise 
solutions. There is an attitude that resolving conflicts with civilian 
energy projects is simply not one of DOD's missions. The grim reality 
is that the Shepherds Flat Wind Farm is only the beginning of the 
problems in Oregon. The objection to this project will also halt at 
least 10 other projects in the works totaling over 3,000 megawatts of 
renewable energy. DOD appears content with the status quo. But status 
quo doesn't reduce our independence on foreign oil or generate new 
jobs.
  Regrettably, it appears that the Department is not interested in 
identifying possible solutions. This surprises me given the critical 
nature of our future renewable energy program and its impact on our 
Nation's national security. Instead of being a partner in the process, 
DOD appears content to be a roadblock. It is long past time for the 
Department to give this issue the attention it requires and work to 
find solutions instead of just being a problem.
  Therefore, until I receive assurance that DOD is taking appropriate 
action to address the increasing conflict between national renewable 
energy policy and national defense, I will object to any unanimous 
consent agreement for the nominations of Sharon E. Burke, to be 
Director of Operational Energy Plans and Programs at DOD; Katherine 
Hammack, to be Assistant Secretary of the Army; and Elizabeth A. 
McGrath, to be Deputy Chief Management Officer at DOD. I place these 
holds reluctantly. I am hopeful that the Department will take immediate 
and appropriate action to resolve current renewable energy conflicts 
and prevent future ones from occurring. Once that happens, I will be 
able to withdraw my holds so that DOD nominations can once again move 
through the Senate.

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