OCEAN CITY – Resort officials this week agreed to hire a firm to review US Wind’s plan for an offshore wind project off the coast of Ocean City.
On Monday, the Mayor and Council had before them a recommendation to hire SLR International, an England-based consulting firm, to review US Wind’s construction and operations plan (COP) and prepare comments for a draft environmental impact statement that will be produced by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
City Manager Terry McGean said the company has the expertise to review the 3,300-plus page document and ensure the town’s concerns regarding the offshore wind project were addressed.
“If we are to engage constructively at the federal level on this project, we need to have the COP professionally reviewed,” he said.
Officials say BOEM, the federal agency responsible for approving offshore wind facilities in federal waters, is currently reviewing US Wind’s construction and operations plan and will likely issue a draft environmental impact statement in August. Once the agency releases that draft document, the public has 45 days to offer written comments.
Those written comments are essentially laying the groundwork for your town’s concerns with the project,” McGean explained. “BOEM is required to address each and every one of those comments.”
McGean told the council Monday he had sent out expressions of interest to review US Wind’s plan and produce written comments on behalf of the town. While two firms responded, SLR remained the only interested party.
“It took a lot to find someone I felt had the expertise to do it that wasn’t already tied into one of the two wind companies,” he said.
McGean noted SLR had knowledge of the wind industry and the permitting process and had done similar work for the oil and gas sector within the U.S. To that end, he recommended the town hire the consulting firm, as a review of the COP was beyond the town’s capabilities.
“My recommendation is to contract with SLR to provide the review of the construction and operations plan and present prepared comments for us for the draft environmental impact statement,” he said. “I know the cost is high at $175,000, but again the document is huge.”
McGean told the council the firm would ensure the company’s COP addressed the town’s concerns, including the project’s impacts on viewsheds and marine life. When asked how a review of the COP would benefit the town’s position, McGean provided several examples.
“The horseshoe crab is a good one,” he said. “There have been zero studies done about what the impact could be on the horseshoe crab. A good portion of this project is located in what’s known as the Carl Shuster Horseshoe Crab Sanctuary. If we can show these things could potentially harm the horseshoe crab and should not be located in that sanctuary, that would require it to be moved.”
Council Secretary Tony DeLuca made a motion to approve the $175,500 contract with SLR International.
“There’s no amount of money I wouldn’t approve of to not see wind farms in Ocean City,” he said.
Councilman John Gehrig, however, questioned if the company was “sufficiently unbiased.” McGean said he had had several conversations with the company on that issue.
“The only work they did was a very minor job for Ørsted, not US Wind,” he said. “They actually had concerns on their end as well, to make sure they could be unbiased for us … I’m very comfortable after meeting with them and talking to them. I think it helps they have ties on both ends, so the comments they give us will have more weight to them. And I think that’s an advantage to us. They are clear on our position to this.”
Gehrig also questioned the consequences of hiring a consulting firm.
“Is there a concern at all that this could backfire on our position?” he asked.
McGean said it was hard to predict, as SLR would be tasked with giving a professional review and opinion.
“They are going to be impartial on their comments,” he replied. “So the concern is that they don’t find a problem with it. We don’t have to go tell BOEM we had a study done and the study said your COP is fine. We just wouldn’t comment.”
McGean reiterated, however, that the review would ensure the town’s concerns were addressed in US Wind’s plan.
“It’s important we make sure all the things that are supposed to be looked at as part of these projects are properly looked at,” he said. “And if they’re not, we need to point that out.”
He added that no other municipalities or nonprofits were conducting reviews on the company’s COP.
“If this were an oil and gas project going on, other NGOs would be doing this,” he said. “It wouldn’t fall to the Town of Ocean City to spend this money and put forth this effort. The Sierra Club would be doing it. They are not doing it in this instance. Nobody really is holding these firms to do some of this due diligence, and this would be the way to do that.”
After further discussion, the council voted unanimously to approve the $175.500 contact with SLR International. McGean stated that while the town supported offshore wind, it had concerns about the project’s impact on Ocean City’s viewshed.
“Our position right now is while we support renewable energy, we support offshore wind, we only support it if it’s done responsibly,” he said. “We are opposed to the construction of any offshore wind turbines that are visible to our residents.”
US Wind is one of two companies pursuing offshore wind energy projects off the coast of Ocean City. The company’s first project is called MarWin, which will general roughly 300 megawatts of electricity utilizing 22 wind turbines approximately 20 miles from shore. It’s second project, Momentum Wind, will generate 808 megawatts of electricity utilizing up to 55 wind turbines more than 15 miles from shore.
“When taken together, the two projects will deliver 1,100 MW of clean energy to the grid, powering more than 340,000 homes with offshore wind energy,” the company’s website reads. “Momentum Wind will secure a major role for Maryland in the rapidly growing U.S. offshore wind industry by establishing the state’s first permanent offshore wind component factory – Sparrows Point Steel – to serve the entire U.S. market. Taking advantage of Maryland’s unique industrial port assets in Baltimore, Momentum Wind will build on US Wind’s already planned $77 million in investments in port infrastructure associated with the MarWin project.”
