US Wind Pulls a Sopranos Move: ‘Nice Little County You Have There – Be a Shame…’

Man, those wind companies drop all pretense of being ‘good neighbors’ and turn into snarling beasts the second their plans are foiled by the towns they’re planning on bulldozing over as they build their off-shore monstrosities.

My girlfriend TurnMDRed just let me know that’s exactly what’s happened in her neck of the Delmarva peninsula. 

You might remember I had a couple of posts going back to 2023 about the fight they’ve had with US Wind for planned developments just off of Ocean City, MD.

The Biden administration and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) fast-tracked approval for the projects despite overwhelming local objections and detailed arguments presented against it. Ocean City let no seagrass grow under their feet and, within two months of that decision, filed a federal lawsuit.

…But Maryland opponents were prepared for such an answer. In less than two months, the city of Ocean City, MD, and its partners had filed a 92-page federal lawsuit alleging the federal government had violated any number of federal regulations and statutes in their rush to approve the plan.

November 5th came, anti-wind forces were heartened by Trump’s win, and the Maryland side held their breath. 

The county on the Delaware side where US Wind had asked for a permit to build a substation to run their massive cables onshore said, “Nope.”

…Their county council denied the permit to build the farm’s massive, ugly asterisk onshore substation near a local power plant and run the massive connector cables under a local beach.

We don’t see this as a Delaware problem, they said. Maryland wants it? 

Let them do it.

In a Sussex County council meeting on Tuesday, county leaders voted against a proposal that would have allowed an electric substation be built near Millsboro.

Dire threats and rumblings were heard from US Wind towards the Sussex County, DE, group.

Back in MD, Ocean City got wind that the developers were preparing to buy the two open sections left on the city dock where commercial and sport boats could offload. Worcester County commissioners swung into action to block the purchase using eminent domain.

…US Wind had planned to use a couple of properties in West Ocean City Harbor to develop an operations and maintenance facility as it starts construction on the much-reviled wind farm. The entire character of the harbor would be changed forever, and the commercial and sport fishing, a traditional and vital part of the area, would be impacted severely, if not irreparably, forever.

I think the old phrase that’s applicable could be modified to the Worcester commissioners cut US Wind off “at the dock” instead of the pass.

On the largely undeveloped Delmarva peninsula – which is surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east and includes portions of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia – local lawmakers are getting ready to take on a major international wind power company in an effort to save its crucial commercial fishing industry.

Which is where we last saw our heroes as the holidays approached.

Oh, well. So much for peace on earth.

U.S. Wind is threatening to take legal action against Worcester County over eminent domain in the West Ocean City Harbor. https://t.co/r8CcAo9KEZ pic.twitter.com/2JL3PoGdmP

— CoastTV (@coasttvnews) January 14, 2025

US Wind has officially blown a gasket and is telling the Worcester County officials to back out of their business…or else.

The light and variable approach that US Wind has attempted to project as part of its plan to build onshore support facilities for its offshore wind farm has gone full gale, as the company told the Worcester County Commissioners last month to stop interfering or face severe legal consequences.

In response to the commissioners’ attempt to block the company’s purchase of two parcels in the Ocean City Commercial Harbor by seizing them through eminent domain, US Wind’s legal representatives wrote in a Dec. 30 letter that it will sue the county government and the commissioners themselves to protect its investment.

It seems the wind developers are so incensed at the nerve of the town resisting their corporate might that they’ve gone so far as to pull out the ‘Ours is bigger than yours, and we will crush you like a bug’ line all the bad guys in movies use.

Seriously – they did. And then threatened the officials involved personally, too.

…Noting that it has more money than the county’s total annual budget tied up in its plan to erect 114 wind energy turbines off the coast of Ocean City, the company promised a vigorous legal response if the commissioners don’t stop trying to kill its agreement to buy the Harbor Road parcels from seafood wholesalers Southern Connection Seafood and Martin Fish Company.

…“US Wind intends to litigate to the fullest extent to protect its constitutional and other rights to construct the offshore wind project,” Prevas said in his letter to the commissioners and County Attorney Roscoe Leslie.

He further argued that government interference in private contract and private property rights violates the federal and state constitutions, the Maryland Declaration of Rights and common law. He also noted that the county’s intentional interference also “creates personal liability for governmental officials involved in such activity.

“To provide context on the magnitude of potential damages for this liability, US Wind’s investment in Maryland and the project to date exceeds the entire annual operating budget of Worcester County.”

LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR

What asshats…but is anyone surprised?

They shouldn’t be. Right now, US Wind is in the ‘scare the crap out of the locals’ stage to get them to back off.

…In addition to the potential legal action, U.S. Wind has requested all communications from Worcester County related to offshore wind projects, including emails and texts.

At this time, no lawsuit has been filed. The situation remains ongoing as both parties continue to navigate the conflict.

Ocean City and the county should get their legal team to do the same for every last scrap of paper the developers and the government have about the project. I’ll bet it would be edifying rummaging through those panicked emails in August about getting the approval jammed through just in case Trump got elected.

I mean, quid pro quo, huh?

We’ll have to see what the response is from the county, but I sure hope they don’t fall for this drum-banging, especially with a regime change in six days. That may also be playing into US Wind’s calculations.

Time’s a tickin’ away, and the clock’s not in wind’s favor.