US Sen Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, added language to a defense appropriation bill that could prevent the Navy from finalizing an agreement with developers of a proposed wind farm on Maryland’s Eastern Shore until scientists finish a study of the effects of the turbines on military radar systems at Patuxent Naval Air Station, the Washington Post reports.
The delay would most likely kill the project.
The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill last year that would also have stopped the construction of 25 wind turbines in Somerset County. Gov Martin O’Malley vetoed that bill, though, saying safeguards had already been put in place to protect the radars used for testing stealth jets that can fly undetected by radar.
Maryland plans to get at least 20 percent of its power from alternative sources, including wind and solar, by 2022. Achieving that goal would be easier if alternative energy facilities, like wind farms, existed in the state. However, some people have criticized wind farms as inefficient in terms of the amount of energy produced and ineffective in terms of the stimulus to the local economy.
House Minority Whip Steny H Hoyer of Maryland, whose district includes the air station, asked military officials not to sign an agreement with the developers, the Post reported. Sen Benjamin L Cardin, a Democrat, also said he supports a delay, and Rep Andy Harris, Maryland’s only Republican in Congress whose district includes the entire Eastern Shore, said the project wouldn’t provide the economic boon to the region that developers had promised.
Top wind-producing states, 2012
- Texas
- Iowa
- California
- Oklahoma
- Illinois
About 3 percent of the total energy produced in the US comes from wind, according to the US Energy Information Association. That’s enough for approximately 12 million households.
New technology and financial incentives to going green
“New technologies have decreased the cost of producing electricity from wind, and growth in wind power has been encouraged by tax breaks for renewable energy and green pricing programs,” the association reported.
And that’s exactly what the problem is with this proposal: MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory is expected to complete its study of the situation by summer 2015. Pioneer Green Energy, the company that has proposed spending about $200 million to build the wind farm, would then have to redo studies required to obtain permits. Redoing the studies for the permits would cause the company to miss deadlines for the federal tax credits.
That would pretty much end the project. Goodbye, wind farm!
