Controversial Delaware offshore wind project in jeopardy as Trump administration pulls back on clean energy plans

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A controversial offshore wind project impacting Delaware could be in jeopardy after President Donald Trump’s administration said it plans to reconsider its approval.

Delaware has a $128 million agreement with US Wind, a Baltimore-based subsidiary of an Italian energy company, that was inked last year to develop projects off the Delmarva Peninsula. MarWin, the first project, is an offshore wind farm capable of generating 300 megawatts of electricity and powering 92,000 Maryland homes.

The company would run power transmission cables from the wind farm constructed 3 miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean to 3Rs Beach at Delaware Seashore State Park. The cables would run beneath Delaware-regulated wetlands, state waters and the Indian River Bay before connecting to a substation near a former power plant.

Delaware state lawmakers controversially overrode Sussex County Council’s denial of a permit for the Indian River substation earlier this year. US Wind subsidiary Renewable Development, which was requesting the permit, has appealed the county’s denial to the Delaware Superior Court.

Roadblocks from the start

The MarWin project was almost immediately the target of legal challenges. One lawsuit has plaintiffs that include Ocean City, Maryland, Delaware’s Fenwick Island and the Caesar Rodney Institute, a Delaware think tank that has connections to the fossil fuel industry. A separate lawsuit was filed earlier this year by Bethany Beach resident Edward Bintz. Both are suing the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Maryland case lists more defendants, such as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The two court challenges are seeking to have approvals of permits and the Construction and Operations Plan revoked.

The Department of the Interior said in a Bintz case filing that it intends to move to seek a reconsideration of the Construction and Operations Plan and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits.

In response to a request for comment, Nancy Sopko, vice president of external affairs at US Wind, said in a statement the company remains “confident that the federal permits we secured after a multi-year and rigorous public review process are legally sound.”

The move to potentially halt the project comes in the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to cancel plans approved under former President Joe Biden to use large areas of federal waters for new offshore wind development. It’s the latest attempt to suppress the industry in the United States.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced last month it was rescinding all of the designated wind energy areas in federal waters, ending the reserve of large areas of federal waters for “speculative wind development.”

A July news release from the Department of the Interior said it would conduct an elevated review of department-related decisions and actions concerning wind and solar energy facilities, saying it was leveling the playing field for dispatchable, cost-effective and secure energy sources, such as clean coal and domestic natural gas.

“Today’s actions further deliver on President Trump’s promise to tackle the green new scam and protect the American taxpayers’ dollars,” said Adam Suess, acting assistant secretary for lands and minerals management. “American energy dominance is driven by U.S.-based production of reliable baseload energy, not regulatory favoritism towards unreliable energy projects that are solely dependent on taxpayer subsidies and foreign-sourced equipment.”

Delaware’s energy crisis

Kris Ohleth, director of the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind, a policy think tank that supports and advises offshore wind developers, said the Trump administration is using various avenues to pull apart permitting documents that have never been in question before.

Ohleth said with the current energy crisis, Delaware will likely suffer from higher electricity bills if this project fails to move forward. The state depends on regional grid operator PJM Interconnection for most of its power supply. PJM services Washington, D.C., and part or all of 13 states, including all of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Many Delaware ratepayers say they struggle to afford their already costly utility bills.

“There’ll be increased costs, not only on Delmarva Peninsula, but throughout PJM, as well as potential threats to reliability,” she said. “Because we need offshore wind as part of our resource adequacy mix. There’s not a lot of other ways to get not only clean energy, but energy writ large onto the grid right now.”

Delaware requires renewable energy to make up a certain amount of supply, and there’s not enough of it on the grid. Some critics complain that PJM is not moving fast enough to connect new renewable energy sources to the grid. Others complain the state’s renewable energy requirements are causing higher bills.

Starwood Digital Ventures, an investor-owned firm, has submitted its proposal to build a massive data center in Delaware City in New Castle County. Critics of the plan say it will make Delaware’s energy crisis worse by using excessive amounts of electricity and water.

Dave Stevenson, director of the Caesar Rodney Institute Center for Energy & Environmental Policy, said he’s pleased that the federal government will re-evaluate authorizing the US Wind project to move forward.

“I think it’s a positive thing, and we should be building other things,” he said. “What we need is power that can be scheduled, dispatched when you want it. And that would be nuclear, coal, natural gas, hydroelectric. It is not wind and solar.”

The judge in both lawsuits has approved a motion from the Department of the Interior and Army Corps to continue the cases until Sept. 5 while the government completes its re-review of the project.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.