The Maryland Department of the Environment issued its final permit for US Wind to build more than 100 wind turbines on its 80,000-acre federal lease 10 miles off the Delmarva beaches.
“The Department has reviewed the application and the comments received and has determined that the proposed construction and commissioning of the offshore wind project would not cause violations of any applicable air pollution control regulations,” according to the agency’s June 6 decision.
The project has been supported by Gov. Wes Moore’s administration, which touts energy, environmental and economic effects from developing offshore wind. US Wind would run a base of operations at Ocean City, Md., and a staging and manufacturing operation at Sparrows Point, a longtime steel and shipbuilding site in Baltimore County.
But on the ocean side of the Eastern Shore, US Wind faces opposition from coastal residents and tourism interests who say industrial wind development will hurt the traditional coastal economy.
Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan said the “Department of Environment is ignoring pre-established permitting deadlines and fundamentally ignoring every shred of feedback offered by those who will be directly involved if this poorly conceived and potentially disastrous offshore wind project is allowed to move forward.”
“The entire economy of our coastal resort town is dependent on tourism, our eco system, and commercial fishing, all of which will be significantly impacted if hundreds of these giant eyesores are constructed 10 miles from our beaches,” Meehan said in a prepared statement June 9. “And please stop the ridiculous comparison between the Block Island Project, which consists of five turbines, with US Wind’s plans to build 114 turbines almost twice the size!”
US Wind CEO Jeff Grybowski was the entrepreneur behind the Block Island project, started in 2016 as a 30-megawatt pilot project with ardent support from then-Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo. Raimondo went on to become Commerce secretary during the Biden administration, and its four-year drive to broaden offshore wind planning and permitting.
“After a thorough, science-based review process and multiple opportunities for feedback from the community, we’re pleased to have secured this final permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment,” Grybowski said in a statement. “US Wind’s projects will produce massive amounts of homegrown energy and will help satisfy the region’s critical need for more electricity. We look forward to continued engagement with the state as work to bring this critical energy project online.”
Maryland offshore wind could still face roadblocks from the Trump administration which has moved to hobble wind power developers – despite recently striking a deal with New York State allowing construction to resume on Equinor’s Empire Wind lease near the approaches to New York Harbor. Wind power opponents continue to pressure federal and local officials to take action against specific projects.
“We will continue fighting this project forcefully in court and with those policymakers who have the power to stop it,” said Meehan. “It is time to put an end to subsidizing this cash cow for US Wind and for the state to invest time and energy on more realistic forms of alternative energy before we end up with a wind turbine graveyard off of our coast and the multi-generational nightmare of repairing our environment and economy.”
