Ocean City’s state representatives say senior officials with the U.S. Department of the Interior are allowing them to make their case for opposing the US Wind project off Maryland’s coast.
On Monday, Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-38) and Del. Wayne Hartman (R-38C) participated in a virtual meeting with senior members of the U.S. Department of the Interior to discuss local opposition to the US Wind project, which involves the construction of 114 wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City, with the closest about 11 miles offshore.
Arranged by Congressman Andy Harris, the meeting focused on the lawsuit the Town of Ocean City and several co-plaintiffs filed against the department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the agency’s response to local concerns.
“It was so refreshing to be in a meeting with federal officials and know that they truly were listening to our specific concerns about the negative impacts of the offshore wind project off Maryland’s Coast,” Carozza said. “In the past, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management officials dismissed several ‘unavoidable’ negative impacts of Maryland’s offshore wind project as only small possibilities or having little impact. Now, we have federal officials who are doing a hard and detailed review of the many negative impacts of offshore wind generation off Maryland’s Coast.”