Reports coming out of Dover hold that the two sides in the great battle of the offshore wind farm are negotiating. Where they will lead, we don't know. ...The legislators passed a law directing Delmarva Power to find a reliable local source of electrical power and ended up with that, plus an almost religious battle over offshore wind power. Delmarva opposed this setup from the beginning. And never too far away is the spectre of a long legal fight that could delay action even longer. ...Listening to the radio advertisements put out by both sides is like going on a roller coaster ride. True believers on either side of the fight have no trouble finding the truth, but everyone left in the middle is dizzy and slightly sick to the stomach.

The wind farm scandal is getting so serious that it's time for Gov. Minner to step in and do what Delaware leaders have always done: Appoint a task force. Make it a deconfusion task force. The governor should task a blue-ribbon panel of first-rate clarifiers to sort through the hyperbole, palaver, double talk, embellishments, dissembling and plain old silliness that have surrounded the debate as to whether the state should have a wind turbine farm in the ocean off Rehoboth Beach. In other words, a panel should find out what in the world is going on ...Lost in this confusion is a simple question: Is the Bluewater bid a good deal or a bad deal for Delaware? Pick one.

Fifty million dollars to $70 million per year for 25 years --- well over a billion dollars -- this is what is at stake in this critical issue for our customers, and unfortunately only our customers. Much has been said lately about the need to move toward renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, and how best to do so. Our obligation to our customers is clear, and over the past few years I have heard it repeatedly up and down the Peninsula: We need to increase our use of renewable energy and keep the rates low. ...

Controller General Russ Larson's vote is supposed to represent the wishes of the legislators. The final vote to accept the offshore wind proposal was scheduled for 12/18/07. ...the initial recommendation of the PSC was misrepresented and the idea was put forth to spread the cost over all of the energy users in Delaware. That is not acceptable to those legislators who primarily represent Delaware Electric Co-Op customers and I agree with them. Part of my district uses the Co-Op but the majority are Delmarva customers. It would not be fair to impose what could be considered a tax on a company to help pay the costs of another company when the first company receives no benefit for the increased cost. With that proposal, some of the legislative support collapsed and Russ was left dangling in the wind on the day of the vote. He did the best thing he could have possibly done by asking to postpone the vote. Forcing a vote at that time with such uncertainty on the part of the legislature would have surely doomed the proposal.

... since any wind farm construction would be several years away anyway, there is no urgency to stop the clock on negotiations now. This also matters because a Delaware wind farm could be the first offshore in the nation. Although there are land installations across the country, other wind projects off Cape Cod and Long Island have been stymied by controversy, including over aesthetics, cost and habitat impacts.

A process has been unfolding to find a new state energy source for more than a year. In a few months, the end of that process will mean that an offshore wind farm will have won the state government's approval or it didn't. ...The process, created by the General Assembly, is too far along to tinker with now. Let it continue without interference or the appearance of meddling.

When the Delaware Public Service Commission ordered Delmarva Power to obtain local power sources, that was supposed to be a means of providing price relief for electric consumers. At least that's what the Delaware Legislature had in mind when they passed the legislation. Somehow, eco-dreamers hijacked the price relief aspect of the plan, and the result is a pie-in-the-sky scheme to put a wind farm off the Delaware coast...........I have a really bad feeling about staking future energy availability on a proposal by a company to build an unreliable power source out in the ocean to transmit electricity to the mainland for distribution.