Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump assumed office with a commitment to restrain the US offshore wind sector, making it quite surprising to witness a new venture continue to navigate the federal approval process. This pertains to the 2 gigawatt Maryland Offshore Wind Project. It encountered a hurdle last week, but Maryland’s Governor Wes Moore and the project developer, US Wind, have pledged to advance.
Foreign Corporation Holds US Offshore Wind Site…So What?
The prospect of launching any new offshore wind installations in the US seems rather unlikely at this moment. However, US presidents are transient, while the wind will continue to blow indefinitely. The legal contest surrounding the Maryland initiative has merely commenced. By the time the legal resolve is reached, the pivotal date of January 20, 2029, will likely have passed. A new Chief Executive will presumably take control of the nation’s energy strategy, likely pursuing a more advantageous direction than the current one.
The suggested Maryland offshore wind farm has been criticized as a foreign-controlled endeavor backed by US Wind, which is the Baltimore-based branch of the Italian renewable energy company Renexia SpA. However, this is not the complete narrative. US Wind was established through capital managed by Renexia and Apollo Global Management, a US asset management firm based in New York and having an office in West Des Moines, along with additional offices in Mumbai, Singapore, and London.
Moreover, foreign companies have a longstanding history of harnessing both onshore and offshore energy resources in the US, including notable players like the UK’s bp — known for the notorious oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — as well as the substantial oil and gas presence of Norway’s Equinor and Shell from the Netherlands.
The Long & Winding Journey To An Offshore Wind Project: 13 Years & Counting
The next 3-1/2 years may feel like an eternity for various reasons. However, US Wind has been waiting over 13 years to realize the Maryland initiative, so what’s another 42 months?
Apollo and Renexia initiated the US Wind venture in 2011, shortly after the new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management was formed. BOEM is the Interior Department office responsible for conducting offshore wind lease auctions and approving leases. That appears straightforward, but prior to BOEM’s establishment, the Interior Department had no designated office for overseeing offshore wind leases. BOEM emerged from a reorganization of the former Mineral Management Service by a secretarial order in 2010.
Despite some persistent issues in the new offshore lease procedure, BOEM was operational by 2014, when it granted an 80,000-acre lease site off the Maryland coast to US Wind. A decade later, US Wind was still tying up the loose ends. A significant milestone transpired in September of the previous year when BOEM endorsed US Wind’s intention to develop over 2 gigawatts of wind energy at the site. In December, BOEM also sanctioned a construction and operational plan for the project.
When Is A Final Plan Not A Final Plan?
That was the situation then. When Trump took office in January, he essentially struck hard at the US offshore wind sector. He ceased new wind leases entirely while also sabotaging the progress of ongoing projects, including Empire Wind in New York and Atlantic Shores in New Jersey.*
Nonetheless, throughout the following months, the Maryland Department of the Environment continued to process the US Wind project’s review. The agency issued its final determination regarding a set of three air quality approvals on June 5, with an effective date of June 6.
However, “final determination” is not the concluding step in the MDE process. In a public announcement outlining the permits, MDE provided information on the appeals procedure.
That is where complications arose.
A New Hope…
In a communication dated July 7, US EPA Regional Director Amy Van Blarcom-Lackey contested MDE’s final determination, asserting that the agency failed to deliver accurate information to the public concerning the appeals process.
“Neglecting to rectify this mistake could lead to invalidation of the permit during appeal and confusion among relevant stakeholders about where to submit such an appeal,” cautioned Van Blarcom-Lackey.
This issue seems like it could be easily rectified, provided one assumes that the EPA’s interpretation of the rules governing the appeals process is accurate. That’s not a particularly secure assumption, given the Trump administration’s consistent history of actions later reversed in court.
With that context, over the weekend a spokesperson for Governor Wes Moore informed the news outlet Spotlight on Maryland that the state would persist with plans to introduce 2 gigawatts of clean electricity to Maryland.
“Maryland remains dedicated to offshore wind in the state, notwithstanding a new array of obstacles posed by the current federal administration,” the spokesperson, Carter Elliott, communicated via email to Spotlight (notably, Spotlight identifies itself as a partnership between FOX45 News, WJLA in Washington, D.C., and The Baltimore Sun).
“We’re committed because offshore wind energy generation supports new clean energy investments, manufacturing employment, and additional supply to the state’s energy base, at a time when more supply is crucial to lower costs for Maryland ratepayers,” Elliott elaborated.
US Wind also confirmed its resolve to sustain the project. “We believe that all of our project’s permits were issued validly,” stated Nancy Sopko, US Wind’s vice president of external affairs. “We are profoundly committed to delivering this significant energy initiative.”
…Or Not
When Van Blarcom-Lackey halted the Maryland Offshore Wind project, she also undermined 550 jobs poised to be initiated at US Wind’s 90-acre onshore wind hub, situated at the premier global logistics center Tradepoint Atlantic. Operations at the US Wind site paused pending a definitive approval from the Trump administration.
Five hundred and fifty jobs is insignificant compared to the thousands of offshore wind supply chain jobs suspended or completely eliminated by Trump, but it still represents numerous job opportunities.
Additionally endangered are jobs related to an $11 million, 10-year wind research initiative at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, financed by US Wind in 2022. The funding encompassed three distinct projects positioned at the offshore wind project. Thus, no project translates to no research employment.
Alongside the obstacle set forth by the EPA, the Maryland project also faces further jeopardy from another executive order enacted by Trump.
Issued on July 7 under the title, “Ending Market Distortion Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign Controlled Energy Sources,” this order aims to lend some White House support behind the provisions of the new tax legislation passed by Republican members of Congress earlier that month.
“The proliferation of these projects displaces affordable, reliable, dispatchable domestic energy sources, compromises our electric grid, and diminishes the beauty of our Nation’s natural environment,” the EO states, targeting wind and solar projects for sanctioning under the new tax legislation.
“Moreover, reliance on so-called “green” subsidies threatens national security by rendering the United States dependent on supply chains managed by foreign adversaries,” the EO continues.
Where to begin? Who knows! The fossil energy sector has already experienced a lifetime of foreign dominance and environmental degradation, and now they can anticipate many more years of the same.
If you have any insights on this, please feel free to leave a comment. Even better, reach out to your representatives in Congress and share your thoughts.
*Updates: The Empire Wind initiative resumed in May, while Atlantic Shores stalled indefinitely in June.
Image (cropped): The immense, 2-gigawatt Maryland Offshore Wind project is still alive and thriving, despite new challenges arising (courtesy of US Wind).
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