Eastern Shore lawmakers call for Gov. Moore to Veto Offshore Wind bill

OCEAN CITY, Md. – A group of Eastern Shore lawmakers have called for Maryland Governor Wes Moore to veto a bill to expand offshore wind land leases to developer US WIND off the coast of Ocean City.

The bill which would create subsidies for the developer comes after the withdrawal of wind developer Orsted of their planned SkipJack projects.

Maryland State Senator Mary Beth Carozza tells WMDT she believes that rate-payers across the state will see higher costs as a result of the subsidies, and believes that the logistics of the project have changed in the years since it was first authorized.

“We were talking about the windmills being a certain height and a certain distance off Maryland’s coast, N=now we’re talking about these offshore wind turbines that are four times larger than the biggest building in Ocean City,and also, you’re talking about them being even closer to the shore, which is would be now they’re talking about 11 miles off Maryland’s coast,” Senator Carozza said. 

She tells us while a veto may be unlikely, that the issues documented in the letter about the offshore wind project will be headed if the project moves forward into the implementation phase.