Will Biden's U.S. Offshore Wind Turbines Actually Be Under the U.N.?

 MONEY POLITICS U.S. WND NEWS CENTER WORLD

WND EXCLUSIVE

All 8 major projects now in progress lie outside U.S. Territorial Sea

By Richard Blakley
Published April 16, 2024 at 6:57pm

Among all the nations pushing land-based or offshore wind-energy agendas, Russia is strangely missing. 

And while China, the world’s largest supplier of rare earth elements needed for wind turbines, is among the countries pushing wind energy, it is also building 43 new coal-fired power plants.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s Green New Deal wind turbines are killing whales, they're destroying America's fishing industry, they;re exploding bats' lungs, they are chopping up flocks of birds, they're reportedly causing a national defense issue by generating numerous false signals picked up by military radar, and also giving false signals to weather radar, causing complicated navigational challenges, and last but not least, are widely seen as an unreliable source of energy.

Yet, wind turbines are being built in the oceans to replace the reliable and cheap energy sources on which the United States has long relied. 

And of course, as wind farms are constructed, traditional energy power plants are being shut down.

Now comes a new and largely unspoken concern: These American wind turbines are all located outside of the U.S. Territorial Sea.

There are four official zones off the U.S. coast. From the low-water line along the coast, extending out 12 nautical miles (14 miles), there is what is called America’s "Territorial Sea": "The territorial sea is sovereign territory, although foreign ships (military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it, or transit passage for straits; this sovereignty also extends to the airspace over and the seabed below."

From the end of the Territorial Sea, the next 12 nautical miles (14 miles) are the "Contiguous Zone," in which the U.S. can "exercise limited control to prevent or punish 'infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea.'"

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The "Exclusive Economic Zone" extends from the shoreline to 200 nautical miles (230 miles) in the ocean: 

"A coastal nation has control of all economic resources inside its exclusive economic zone, including fishing, mining, oil exploration, and pollution of those resources. 

However, it cannot prohibit passage or loitering above, on, or under the surface of the sea, that complies with the laws and regulations adopted by the coastal state in accordance with the provisions of the U.N. Convention, within that portion of its exclusive economic zone beyond its territorial sea" (from 14 miles to 230 miles from the shoreline.)

So, the actual U.S. Territorial Sea extends only 14 miles into the ocean. 

According to the definition of Exclusive Economic Zone, activities that occur in the region between the Territorial Sea and the outer limits of the Exclusive Economic Zone, must be "in accordance with the provisions of the U.N. Convention."

All built 'outside' the U.S. Territorial Sea

Biden’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has approved building eight offshore wind farms, all eight of which lie outside the U.S. Territorial Sea:

The first one, Vineyard Wind, is being built about 15 miles offshore of Martha’s Vineyard by "Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners [Denmark] and Iberdrola [Spain] through a subsidiary Avangrid Renewables."

The second major offshore wind project, South Fork Wind, located 35 miles east of Montauk Point, N.Y., is being built by Orsted (Denmark)..

The third, Ocean 1, located 15 miles southeast of Atlantic City, N.J., is also being built by Orsted.

While 3,400 offshore wind turbines were planned for New Jersey, Orsted canceled two projects, citing "high inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, and rising interest rates." 

According to Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., "Orsted’s decision was a first step in exposing the economic unsustainability and environmental dangerousness of ocean wind turbines – each the size of the Chrysler building in New York City."

The fourth major offshore wind project, Revolution Wind, located 17.3 miles southeast of Point Judith, R.I., is being built by Orsted and Eversource (U.S.) to route the power.

The fifth, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, located 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, is being built by Dominion Energy (U.S.), headquartered in Richmond, Va.

The sixth major offshore wind project, Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2, located 15 miles south of Jones Beach, Long Island, is being built via the collaboration of three U.S. companies including Con Edison.

The seventh project, Sunrise Wind, located about 16.7 miles from Block Island, R.I., is being built by Orsted and Eversource, to route the power.

The eighth major offshore wind project, New England Wind, located about 23 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., is being built by Avangrid (U.S.) based in Orange, Conn.

One key dynamic that many consider potentially disastrous is that as the wind farms come online, traditional energy power plants are being shut down.

The Biden administration enthusiastically claims it is "“on track to complete reviews of at least 16 offshore winds project plans by 2025."

But meanwhile, all of Biden’s already approved wind farms lie outside the Territorial Sea of the United States, meaning the U.S. has "limited control" over this region. 

Being in the region between the Territorial Sea and the outer limit of the Exclusive Economic Zone, these wind farms fall “in accordance with the provisions of the U.N. Convention”.

The U.N. Convention, in turn, states that within this area the U.S. "cannot prohibit passage or loitering above, on, or under the surface of the sea that complies with laws and regulations." 

In other words, once America puts the source of its power outside the Territorial Sea, it is "limited" to how well it can protect that power source.

This raises obvious concerns as to just how secure it is for America’s power to come under a United Nations convention, especially if any new conflict should arise with the U.N.

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