OCEAN CITY, Md. (WBFF) — Fireworks erupt ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend as Maryland state officials, coastline leaders, and community members clash over an offshore wind project that continues to inch forward.

State Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, R-Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties, told Spotlight on Maryland while walking through Convention Center Boardwalk Park along the Isle of Wight Bay on Wednesday that she has never seen widespread unity in opposition to any project among area elected officials and beach leaders since joining the Maryland General Assembly in 2015.

So many people and families just don’t want to see these turbines,” Carozza said. “They don’t make sense, they know they’re expensive, they know they’re being paid for by the taxpayers’ dollars, and they want to protect our way of life.”

Officially known as the Town of Ocean City, the Maryland coastal resort community extends 9 miles from its northern border with Delaware to its southern inlet. U.S. Census data from 2022 shows the narrow strip of land between the Atlantic and the Isle of Wight Bay swells to become Maryland’s second most populated municipality during summer months, slightly behind Baltimore City.

Carozza took Spotlight to Maryland on a tour through Ocean City’s busy streets on Wednesday as the town filled with beachgoers and families preparing for a dual fireworks display off the ocean. Along Coastal Highway, the main road through the beach community, yard signs, billboards, and hotel electric displays reading “Say NO to Offshore Wind” were common.

How Maryland offshore wind became a priority

The state assembly passed the Climate Solutions Now Act (CSNA) of 2022, along with the Renewable Portfolio Standard, as a mandate to cut state greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2031 and achieve a net-zero emissions state by 2045.

Then-Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, neither vetoed nor signed the CNSA. State Democrats hold an overwhelming veto-proof majority in the Maryland State House and frequently overrode Hogan’s vetoes. According to the state’s constitution, a bill presented to the governor while the state assembly is in session becomes law after six days if the chief executive does not return objections.

In 2023, months after Maryland Gov. Wes Moore became the state’s 63rd governor, the political newcomer announced he was accelerating the state’s already ambitious green energy goals passed by the state assembly before he took office.

Moore announced outside TradePoint Atlantic in Sparrows Point, Md., in April 2023 that he would move up the state’s net-zero emissions targets by ten years, requiring Maryland to reach 100% clean energy by 2035.

This is a very clear statement to our entire state, that we are moving fast, that we are going to be bold, and we are going to have 6.2 million people that are going to be participants in that boldness,” Moore said.

TradePoint Atlantic is a logistics hub development on over 3,000 acres of the former Bethlehem Steel plant site, which closed in 2003. Bethlehem Steel, once the world’s largest steel producer, was referenced during Moore’s visit in April 2023, when he signed the Promoting Offshore Wind Energy Resources Act.

Moore said during the bill’s signing that he “envisioned a 21st century economy driven by Maryland wind power,” which would include the construction of wind turbines at the site.

The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) approved four bid applications in 2017 to develop wind energy farms along the Atlantic Ocean shelf outside Ocean City.

The Skipjack Wind 1 and Wind 2 project agreements with Maryland regulators to sell energy to the state, applied by Danish developer Orsted, were canceled by the company in January 2024. According to a statement on Orsted’s website, offshore renewable energy credits were “no longer sustainable under current market conditions,” a stipulation imposed by the PSC.

Initially scheduled to operate by 2024, U.S. Wind’s MarWin project aims to install 114 wind turbines about ten miles off Ocean City’s coast. The Italian-owned company said in its rebid application, which was once again awarded in January 2024 by the PSC, that it intends to build its wind turbines at the Bethlehem Steel site.

Spotlight on Maryland requested interviews with U.S. Wind on Wednesday and Thursday and sent the following questions to the green energy developer:

• As an Italian-based company, do you feel you have the best interests of Marylanders in mind?
• Will the proposed wind turbines be visible from Ocean City’s shoreline? If so, why?
• How would you describe your relationship with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and his administration?
• Are there concerns that this project could be halted if the U.S. government cancels the lease or federal subsidies?
• What compensation is being provided to Ocean City’s commercial industry workers and residents for the anticipated impact?

Dori Henry, with Blended Public Affairs, a prominent Maryland-based public relations, crisis communications, and strategic advising firm, said that representatives with U.S. Wind were unavailable for interviews during the requested period. Answers to questions submitted by Spotlight on Maryland to U.S. Wind were not returned.

Blended Public Affairs was founded and is led by Alexandra Hughes, who served as chief of staff for 13 years to former Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel County, before his passing in 2019.

Hughes coordinated multiple media availabilities for Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) last year during the company’s initial public meetings about the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project. The Piedmont Project is a 90-mile high-voltage power line project proposed to run through Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Counties.

Ocean City leaders and the community unite against offshore wind

Sonny Gwin, a commercial fisherman in Ocean City for nearly fifty years, told Spotlight on Maryland with tears in his eyes aboard his fishing boat on Wednesday that he fears U.S. Wind’s offshore energy project may tear apart his family legacy.

“I’m getting to the very end of my rope, I’m 68,” Gwin said. “My son is starting in this business. I think that’s what worries me the most.”

Him, being in this business, trying to make a living doing this, when they’re working so hard to stop him from doing it,” Gwin added.

The lobster and sea bass fisherman said he always knew he wanted to make a living on the water after falling in love with the ocean when he was a teenage surfer.

Gwin said that colleagues working off Virginia’s shoreline, where wind energy projects are being built, have been unable to gather similar amounts of seafood because of dredging near the wind farm leasing area. He said that local, state, and federal leaders have offered their support in his fight against the wind turbine project, except for Maryland’s chief executive.

Who we don’t have is the governor. He is full, head-on, on doing it, and there seems like there is so much opposition,” Gwin said. “We want to make sure they do not go out there and mess up the environment,”

Spotlight on Maryland requested an interview with Moore on Thursday morning through his spokesperson. Within three minutes, Carter Elliott, the governor’s spokesperson, declined Spotlight on Maryland’s interview request via email but arranged a conversation with another Maryland state government leader.

Adam Ortiz, the deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment, told Spotlight on Maryland that the state fully intends to move forward with offshore wind despite opposition from individuals like Gwin and Ocean City leaders.

“There is no question that we have rising energy demand,” Ortiz said. “We have AI, we have data centers, and a growing population, so we have to meet that demand. The question is how thoughtfully do we do it.”

Although Hogan had not previously signed the CSNA, Ortiz said that his agency is implementing similar policies set by the former Republican administration in a “thoughtful and sustainable way.”

“We have been in close contact with local leaders and officials, and have attended many public meetings, and we are happy to address any concerns going forward, along with our sister agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources,” Ortiz said.

Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan said he believed that Moore’s administration is not paying attention to local concerns, which he also shares, regarding the wind turbine project’s effects on tourism, fishing, the environment, and the region’s economy.

I believe it is to check off a box politically, and that’s unfortunate,” Meehan said. “This is not a good project for the future. There are other things that should be considered.”

“Those conversations should be happening now before, at some point in time, God-forbid, we’re looking at a wind turbine graveyard off the coast, as this country and this state move on to other more reliable forms of renewable energy,” Meehan added.

Ortiz said the Moore administration has been responsive to local leaders, despite what Ocean City mayors and others say.

“We have always been in conversation,” Ortiz said. “In Maryland, we don’t always agree on everything, but people are heard and to the extent that we can, we try to accommodate everybody in a thoughtful way.”

Meanwhile, Ocean City vacationer Stephanie Corcoran told Spotlight on Maryland on the boardwalk Wednesday that she might reconsider her beloved trips to Maryland’s beaches.

“I feel [offshore wind] would ruin the travel industry because people don’t want to look at that when they’re sitting on the beach, enjoying the sun, riding the waves,” Corcoran said. “Nobody wants to see that out there.”

Follow Gary Collins with Spotlight on Maryland on X and Instagram. Do you have news tips on this story or others? Send news tips to gmcollins@sbgtv.com.

Spotlight on Maryland is a collaboration between FOX45 News, WJLA in Washington, D.C., and The Baltimore Sun.