Offshore wind turbines supporters in Ocean City fight Trump administration for project's survival
A federal judge in Baltimore heard arguments Wednesday about whether to stop the Trump administration from revoking the construction and operations plan for a contentious offshore wind project off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland.
U.S. Wind, the company behind the project, got the green light from the Biden Administration, but the Trump Administration has repeatedly signaled its opposition.
Lawyers for U.S. Wind told Judge Stephanie Gallagher the Trump administration is "effectively trying to kill the project."
They are asking the court for a preliminary injunction to stop that from happening. They are also asking the government pay U.S. Wind's legal fees.
U.S. Wind's CEO is confident
U.S. Wind's CEO Jeffrey Grybowski's lawyers argued, "This project cannot withstand another blow."
Grybowski told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren his focus is on prevailing in court and getting the project up and running.
"We're really sure that after ten years of work on this project that the permits are very valid. So, we are pretty confident we're going to build this project," he said. "We're in this fight because we made a promise to Maryland that we are going to build the biggest renewable energy project in the state's history."
Grybowski said halting the project could have an impact on Maryland's electricity prices and cost the state jobs.
"This project is really important to deliver electricity to Maryland. Power prices are really high. People are struggling with utility bills, and so we need to build new power plants and a project like ours will save people in Maryland a lot of money," the CEO told WJZ Investigates. "My view ultimately is it shouldn't be up to Ocean City to decide whether people in Maryland get lower electricity bills or not, and it shouldn't be up to Ocean City to decide whether jobs get created, whether new manufacturing jobs get created in Baltimore. So, that's what we're fighting for."
Opposition in Ocean City
Ocean City contends the more than 100 massive turbines will disrupt marine life and will be visible from their beach at night—hurting tourism and property values.
Nancie Marzulla, a lawyer representing Ocean City, declined comment outside court but told Judge Gallagher Wednesday, "We intend to stay until the bitter end."
Congressman Andy Harris, a Republican representing the Eastern Shore, drew cheers for his offshore wind opposition at the White Marlin Open in August and in a September speech in Congress said barring offshore wind is a national security issue.
"They have never been placed in the maritime environment, so we have no idea what the effect is on the undersea, the undersea effect. And in my district, this is the closest point to Washington D.C. off the coast. Now, time is not our enemy. Russia and China are our enemies. They have submarines. Russia has submarines that could come close to our coast, launch a weapon, and not be detected because we don't know what the effect is of these windmills," Representative Harris said at the time.
This week, another federal judge struck down Trump's executive order halting all approvals of wind farms on federal land and water as illegal, but that did not stop the president from railing against the projects at an event in Pennsylvania Tuesday.
"We don't approve windmills. We don't approve it. I'm sorry. We don't like things that kill all our birds, and every time you put one up, only the guy that owns it makes a lot of money. Those guys what a joke. And they are ugly," President Trump said.
Governor Wes Moore and other Democrats in the Maryland congressional delegation have expressed support for the project.
Judge Gallagher did not make a ruling on the preliminary injunction from the bench.
