‘The sunrise will never be the same’: Ocean City ready to sue federal government over offshore wind farm

The beauty of a sunrise at the beach is something to be savored — Ocean City, Maryland, says it’s worth fighting for, and plans to sue the federal government if the U.S. gives the OK to build an offshore wind farm.

Mayor Rick Meehan, at an Aug. 5 city council meeting, said the town has hired a law firm, and will join several local co-plaintiffs in suing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), if it issues a federal permit to US Wind, to construct the wind project.

Ocean City has opposed the proposed wind farm project for several years. At the end of July, BOEM released its final environmental impact statement for the project, which the government said could support an estimated 2,679 jobs annually over seven years.

“The turbines will be as close as between 10.7 and 10.9 miles off our coast,” Meehan told the council. “The turbines will be at a minimum, 938 feet tall — if they were built on land, they would be the tallest structures in the state of Maryland.”

According to the town, each turbine would need to be lit with flashing red lights, which would also be visible from the beach, stretching the length of Ocean City.

“This totally industrializes the horizon off the coast of Ocean City,” Meehan said. “The sunrise will never be the same.”

If approved, the project could generate up to 2,200 megawatts of renewable energy, and power up to 770,000 homes.

US Wind has said the project is designed to protect natural and socioeconomic resources, by including mitigation measures, including reducing sound underwater during construction to protect marine mammals.

“There’s a lot of talk about the benefit the wind turbines would bring to the state of Maryland — clean energy, jobs, revenue for the state,” said Meehan. “Those things would still happen if the turbines were located further offshore, but that has fallen on deaf ears to this point.”

Meehan said the majority of state and federal elected officials — including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who in June signed a memorandum of understanding with BOEM — support the wind farm, in part because offshore wind development is part of the state’s climate goals.

If the project is greenlighted, Meehan said the town would sue the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. “We have hired a law firm to do that, and we have co-plaintiffs that we’re working with, throughout this city, to sign on with us.”

Meehan said the town is willing to buck the odds of prevailing.

“Our position is, that if we don’t stand up for ourselves, nobody else will,” Meehan said. “This is a David and Goliath fight — we believe we’re right.”