January 19, 2020
Maryland

What politicians, developers said at the Ocean City offshore wind hearing

Matthew Prensky | Salisbury Daily Times | Jan. 18, 2020 | www.delmarvanow.com

Hundreds of Eastern Shore residents packed a public hearing about offshore wind in Ocean City.

A public hearing was called by the Maryland Public Service Commission after developers U.S. Wind and Orsted made changes to their proposed offshore wind farms that would include much larger wind turbines than previously planned.

Many of the notable comments from the hearing came from Eastern Shore politicians and wind developers who seemed to have a different perspectives.

Here are some of the notable statements from the meeting that started at noon and went into the evening:

“What is currently proposed would dramatically change the viewshed off of our Maryland and Delaware coast forever. That is an accurate prediction of our sunrise.”

— Rick Meehan, Ocean City mayor

“I would suggest that this is one of the most amazing cases of bait and switch that I’ve ever seen. I’ve been working on now going on for three years and, until October, I was completely unaware that 12-megawatt windmills were being considered.”

— U.S. Congressmen Andy Harris, R-Md.-1

“The county not only relies on Ocean City for 60% of its entire budget but many, if not most, of our county residents are directly or indirectly employed in Ocean City. And any disruption of this revenue source for not only us, but for our residents, will be crippling.”

— Joe Metrecic, Worcester County commissioner president

“Those of us who live a little bit inland must remind ourselves in this process that we love our beaches, love our neighbors to the East and, we must remind ourselves that this is on their block, not ours. But I ask us all to remember this that its still in the neighborhood of the Eastern Shore.”

— Jake Day, Salisbury mayor

“Denmark, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany and Sweden all have renewable energy like offshore wind. And there are facts that support the science that says they don’t bring any detriment to tourism or real estate value.”

— Salvo Vitale, country manager for U.S. Wind

“I think that there is a lot of confusion around in general offshore wind and also between projects that are coming into Maryland. There are two different developers and there’s some general confusion around the fact that there are two projects.”

— Joy Weber, development manager for Orsted

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/01/19/what-politicians-developers-said-at-the-ocean-city-offshore-wind-hearing/