OCEAN CITY, Md. -- On Monday night, Maryland's General Assembly passed legislation to expand the states offshore wind efforts. The goal is to increase energy output from 2 gigawatts to 8.5.
The decision struck a nerve with people in Ocean City. One of those people is Steve Brunett, who has a house in Ocean City and is worried this will ruin an ocean view he knows and loves.
"We love going to the boardwalk and looking out over the ocean and seeing the beautiful view," said Brunett. "Something that beautiful shouldn't be messed with."
While he is worried about a view interrupted by wind turbines, Brunett said he's more concerned with how this could impact the environment.
"Doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of planning for when there's problems and the fisheries seem like they are going to be adversely affected," said Brunett.
Kerry Harrington, a commercial fisherman in Ocean City, shares Brunett's concern about any negative impacts to the environment.
"It disrupts a lot of the bottom out there, it disrupts the flyways for our migratory birds, it disrupts our navigation as we’re coming through an array of those things," said Harrington. "And we’re still learning about other things they disrupt."
Senator Mary Beth Carozza(R), who represents the lower Eastern Shore, was one of the few dissenting votes from Monday night.
"I have consistently been concerned about the impact on our commercial fishing industry, on military communications, the fact that we do have the right whales that are showing up along the east coast dead," said Carozza.
Carozza said she thinks this is a matter that overall, warrants a lot more thought.
"We really should pause rather than move forward with a procurement," said Carozza.
The bill is now awaiting Governor Wes Moore's signature, but the governor has already stated his intent to sign it into law. If he does, it will go into effect on June 1st of 2023.
