Panel held in OC to Stop Offshore Wind

OCEAN CITY, Md. – A public hearing drew in hundreds to the Roland E. Powell Convention center on Monday night, as eight local leaders and experts spoke on a panel against the installation of offshore windmills.

The event, hosted by the StopOffshoreWind Coalition, in coordination with the Town of Ocean City (OC) and Worcester County Government, sought to push back against U.S. Wind’s longstanding proposal to construct a 114 turbine windfarm located 10.7 miles off the coast of OC. The project was approved in Oct. 2024 under the Biden Administration, but faced scrutiny under the notoriously anti-wind Trump Administration. On Sept. 12, 2025, the Department of the Interior (DOI) reversed course and filed a motion to vacate and remand the project approval. When the U.S. District Court ordered a briefing on that motion, the federal government then sought to stay the proceedings indefinitely. Maryland Attorney General (AG) Anthony G. Brown and Delaware AG Kathry Jennings have since filed briefs requesting preliminary injunctions to save the project. A ruling is expected late summer 2026.

Speakers gathered to inform residents on where the project currently stands, and how they are continuing the fight against offshore wind. OC Mayor Rick Meehan opened the event and introduced each of the panelists, who specialized in a particular field related to concerns surrounding offshore windmill installation.

“It is almost impossible to believe that over the past eight years, and after attending numerous public hearings at both the state and federal level, stating our concerns, that not one of our concerns has been addressed,” Mayor Meehan said in his opening remarks. “Our goal tonight is to bring to light some of these questions, and provide some of the missing answers for the people in this room.”

The Local & State Government Perspective

The first speaker of the evening was Fenwick Island Mayor Natalie Magdeburger. She spoke on behalf of Delawareans that would be impacted by the installation.

Mayor Magdeburger outlined the four things needed by U.S. Wind to construct the windfarm; a harbor (which would be located in Worcester County), cable installation, a transmission station, and zoning approval. While the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) approved the cable installation on 3Rs Fishing Beach and the running of the lines through the Indian River Bay, the Sussex County Council denied zoning approval for the transmission station. However, the Delaware General Assembly went on to pass SB159 in May of last year, allowing the State to reattain zoning rights in some cases. The State subsequently remanded the Sussex County Council’s decision. Sussex County and Fenwick Island are currently suing over the constitutionality of the legislation and seeking an injunction.

“The numbers are stacked against us, but with these actions, as well as the federal litigation that we’re involved with, partnering with OC under [Meehan’s] leadership, we hope we can bring an end to this madness,” Mayor Magdeburger concluded.

Terry McGean, City Manager of OC, spoke on the panel to discuss the ongoing legal battles the City is engaged in over the project. He acknowledged that the ongoing litigation has been costly, but worth the cost of fighting for a priceless town.

“For years, we attended numerous hearings and we begged for a simple change: move the turbines further offshore,” McGean said. “Not only were we ignored, at times we were ridiculed, but the turbines instead doubled in size and moved closer to shore.”

McGean said the City first entered litigation after the Biden Administration failed to respond to over 200 comments they made in response to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, released in the summer of 2024. They also sued over perceived violations of multiple environmental conservation laws. While OC is the primary plaintiff in the suit, they are joined by over 20 co-plaintiffs, including Worcester County, Fenwick Island, commercial fishing groups, environmentalists, businesses, and others. Additionally, while the federal government is the primary defendant in the case, U.S. Wind became a legal intervenor and has assumed a majority of legal action in this case.

While a ruling on the DOI’s remandment is not expected until later this year, McGean says U.S. Wind already has all but three permits needed to begin construction. One of those permits is the federal air quality permit that was revoked by the Environmental Protection Agency last July.

“We will not give up the fight — until U.S. Wind gives up, we’re going to fight,” McGean said. “We don’t have any other choice.”

Worcester County Administrator Weston Young sat on the panel to speak about the onshore components of the U.S. Wind project, most notably including the two West OC fish houses currently under contract by the corporation. A fish house is a seafood packing and processing facility, and serves as an important part of the seafood supply chain. Young says the owners of the two fish houses are currently being offered double to triple the property value by U.S. Wind to sell.

Further, the fish houses are located in the West OC Harbor, the only commercial fishing harbor in Maryland with direct access to the Atlantic. This makes the locations essential for fisherman working towards federal seafood quotas. One of the facilities in the harbor is also home to horseshoe crab bleeding operations, as horseshoe crab blood is used to detect harmful bacterial endotoxins in vaccines and intravenous drugs.

Young took issue with a Memorandum of Understanding issued in May 2025 between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Wind. He argues that the Multi-Use Fishing Community Resilience Fund outlined in Section VII of the is a “letdown” and “one-sided,” arguing that it doesn’t seek to help impacted watermen until its too late. U.S. Wind has repeatedly argued that new jobs will come to the Eastern Shore as a result of the project, but Young says the majority of those jobs will actually go to Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore.

State Senator Mary Beth Carozza spoke last, addressing what she plans to do ahead of the Maryland legislative session beginning on Wednesday. Senator Carozza is one of several state representatives that have pushed back against AG Brown during his efforts to secure a preliminary injunction for the project.

Maryland is currently importing 40 percent of the energy used by the state, a demand that has grown as legislators look to move away from non-renewable energy sources like coal and oil.

“We need a reliable grid, but it cannot be on the back of the ratepayers,” she began. “As a member of the Senate Energy Committee, we will be focused on energy reliability and affordability, not on subsidies or legislation to support offshore wind development in Maryland.”

Last session, Senator Carozza sponsored bipartisan legislation requiring the Maryland Public Service Commission to conduct a full cost-benefit analysis of the State’s energy sources, and to recommend reliable and affordable energy alternatives. Senator Carozza says she would like to see more proposals surrounding nuclear energy, natural gas, and rooftop solar as clean alternatives to wind. She also said she planned to take the information presented at the panel to her colleagues in Annapolis.

“We will resolve this fight to preserve our Shore way of life,” Senator Carozza concluded.

 The Economic Perspective

Local leaders were joined by Travis Fisher, Director of Energy and Environmental Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. Fisher’s background includes experience with the U.S. Department of Energy, leading the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, and research for groups like the Heritage Foundation.

Fisher explained that the State of Maryland mandates the production of 8.5 gigawatts from the proposed wind farms, a cost he says totals over $60 billion. As a result, Maryland taxpayers would suffer $25,000 per home from the capital costs alone.

“Intermittent energy is inherently expensive because… they don’t really replace reliable power plants,” Fisher argued. “We’ll end up paying for offshore wind, which is intermittent, and backup sources, specifically we’re talking probably more gas-fire power plants or large batteries.”

He argues that there are more affordable, yet still intermittent, forms of energy that could take offshore wind’s place, such as solar panels and onshore wind.

The Commercial Fishing Perspective

Jeanene Gwin is a retired public school teacher, but she sat on this panel as the wife and mother of commercial fishermen, as well as the co-owner of a seafood retail business, Skilligalee Seafood.

Gwin explained how commercial fishing is already heavily regulated on the State and federal levels, from boat permits to fishing restrictions. She argued that adding turbines would not only add more regulations to fishing areas, but also jeopardize the two fish houses in West OC. Gwin also cited concerns about environmental impacts on the diverse array of species that inhabit the proposed installation areas. She noted that the Carl N. Schuster Horseshoe Crab Reserve, which encompasses parts of the Delaware Bay, established a no-fishing area to ensure protection for the horseshoe crab species. However, three separate wind projects, including the Maryland-Delaware project being discussed, are located within the boundaries of the reserve.

“We can’t fish there, but three developers will be allowed to industrialize the area, with pile-driving, mass construction equipment, and massive electric cables,” Gwin said, pointing out the irony.

Gwin also highlighted concerns surrounding the creation of open water cooling system electrical substations, which are installed to maintain the temperature of the turbines. She claimed that substations, which release chlorinated water into the ocean and can suck up small organisms, will irreversibly harm fisheries. Four substations would be built in collaboration with the U.S. Wind project.

“As the owner of a retail seafood business, we get all of our fish from local fisherman,” Gwin explained. “Local fisherman feed our community. If the commercial fishing industry fails, we fail the community.”

The Environmental Perspective

Local environmentalist and wetland professional, Spencer Rowe, spoke about the environmental harms of the project.

“Generating power from offshore wind is inefficient when its working, dirty when its being built, and always hard on wildlife and he environment,” he began. “Perhaps its biggest sin is that it diverts resources from all the things that we could be doing to generate clean power and help the environment.”

One main concern of Rowe’s was the installation of 100 thousand tons of concrete and 450 thousand tons of steel in the ocean floor as part of U.S. Wind’s farm construction. Rowe also cited the aforementioned Draft Environmental Impact Statement, and argued that it severely underestimated the harms that over 160 species would face from offshore wind turbines. The report only cited major impacts against the already endangered North Atlantic right whale, and moderate impacts against 39 species — numbers Rowe believes are actually much higher after observing inconsistencies.

The National Security Perspective

Chris Cikanovich joined the panel to discuss an often overlooked argument surrounding the Maryland-Delaware windfarm: national security. He told attendees about Warning Area 386, an aviation training ground located 2.5 nautical miles off the coast of OC. The training ground starts at sea level and goes 20,000 feet in the air, and is used to practice speed trials, air-to-air combat, and other military operations, like testing hypersonic weapons.

Cikanovich posed an interesting argument: the installation of a windfarm in Warning Area 386 would severely impact military operations. In line with tourism concerns, U.S. Wind initially planned for the turbine lighting to go off at night, as to not illuminate the skyline. Cikanovich says that this is a major safety concern for aircraft traveling at high speeds in the area. Further, due to the moving nature of windmills, he noted that Doppler radar would be rendered useless, as it tracks a target’s movement and would be inundated by the motion of the turbines. This would limit air-to-air combat practice, as well as hamper future search & rescue efforts.

“In the last administration… the military was not asked and informed that they would not give an opinion on threats to national security caused by windfarms,” Cikanovich said. “Now it’s a whole new world [and] we’re starting to put those answers together.”

The Opposition’s Perspective

The panel was met with thunderous applause after each speaker concluded, with the exception of one protester who made himself known during the Q&A portion of the event. He was escorted out by security and jeers from the anti-wind crowd.

Ahead of the panel on Monday, Kathy Phillips, a West OC resident in favor of the offshore wind project, said the following:

“Frankly, I am tired of seeing only one side of this discussion presented to the public through our elected officials, which has turned a very positive economic and environmental opportunity for our communities into a political fear-mongering campaign. The opposition to offshore wind has deep roots in the oil and gas industry, and I am tired of watching an oil industry-supported PR firm craft the message presented to the public through our local government agencies. This project has been carefully studied from all angles, and it’s time to move forward.”