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based on European experiences and documents. For reference, Wise cited the “White Paper on Offshore Wind

Energy” written by the Netherlands’

Ministry of Infrastructure and the

Environment and The Ministry of

Economic Affairs in 2014.

Readers may recall that in February 2022 the National Academy of Sci- ences released a study sponsored by

BOEM that documented how wind towers degrade maritime radar. Tur- bines clutter a radar’s display, result- ing in an ambiguous and confusing picture for the operator, according to the NAS report.

Wise was asked about developments pertaining to radar-wind turbine im- pacts. He cited the NAS February 2022 report as the latest guidance and that the report includes a number of recommendations for testing, data collection and evaluation.

Mitigating radar impacts remains a high-level focus for a number of federal agencies, including the De- partments of Defense and Energy as well as for NOAA and BOEM. The exact status of this work, however, at least since last February, isn’t clear.

A BOEM spokesperson said that

BOEM now uses the NAS report for environmental studies; speci? c ques- tions about follow up, though, were referred to the Coast Guard.

DOE has a website for the “Wind

Turbine-Radar Interference Mitiga- tion Working Group.” The Depart- ment of Homeland Security, which includes the Coast Guard, is listed as a Working Group “observer,” not a di- rect participant.

A DOE web page explains that a

Memorandum of Understanding, www.marinelink.com MN 23|