The Senate Wind Farm Hearings
February 9th, 2008 by Maria Evans
The attending three out of six members of the Delaware Senate’s Energy and Transit Committee.
The ground rules were you had to be polite, you had five minutes, and you had to tell the committee what electric company you used at Thursday night’s Energy and Transit Committee hearing about the wind farm project that would sit 11.5 miles off of Rehoboth Beach’s shore. The Senate Chamber was standing room only, and three out of six of the committee members were in attendance. Some of the members of the General Assembly who showed up to listen to the proceedings were Representatives Gerald Hocker and John Kowalko, and Senator George Bunting.
Delmarva Power & Light President Gary Stockbridge was on hand for the Senate hearings and was glad that the public was getting a chance to comment. He’s also gotta be a little mad that a state government passed a law in 2006 telling his company who to buy power from, but state governments pass laws regulating business a lot.
(If you click on someone’s name, you’ll get their statement to the committee, or in the case of candidates or energy company representatives, the statement given to me outside of the hearings).
Governor Russ Peterson
This was the only night of hearings where the public could speak, and former Governor Russ Peterson was the first at the podium. He voiced his support for the project.
“Little states aren’t limited to doing little jobs, little states can do big jobs, too. That’s what our forefathers did when they made little Delaware the First State.” - former Governor Russ Peterson
Chad Tolman from the Sierra Club, Alan Muller from Green Delaware, bloggers Tom Noyes from Tommywonk and Nancy Willing from The Delaware Way, Lt. Governor John Carney, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Protack, Dave Walsh from the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council which represents 22 trade unions, and Pat Gearity, a local lawyer, were among the many people who turned out to support the offshore wind farm project.
Lt. Governor John Carney was there to show support for the project. Earlier this month Carney helped negotiate a deal where Bluewater Wind would establish a hub in Delaware that would result in jobs for the state.
Among those voicing opposition to the project were Ed Ratledge from the University of Delaware, Bernadette Winston, a Wilmington Community Center Director, a representative from the Local 1238, which includes DP & L union workers, Charles Boncelet from the University of Delaware, and private citizen Tim Bond, who cited the “lack of fairness” in a process that, among other things, wouldn’t reopen bidding so Conectiv could bid a wind farm project, too.
Charles Boncelet from the University of Delaware was there to speak out against the project.
An out of state speaker, Barbara Hill, made a compelling statement in favor of offshore wind power. The organization that she represents, Clean Power Now, is the group fighting Senator Ted Kennedy in an attempt to make Cape Cod the site of the nation’s first offshore wind farm. Hill said that she would love the competition from Delaware to see who would be first in offshore wind.
One of the interesting things I learned during the hearings was that a nuclear power plant in the north east had to shut down during the drought this past summer because they didn’t have coolant water. I never knew that could happen. And probably my favorite moment was when Sussex Countian Hal Alpiar explained to the Committee how he had to regularly wipe the soot from around his home that sits “two miles as the crow flies,” from the Indian River Power Plant, a story I’ve heard a million times from county residents.
Some of the rhetorical questions brought up by speakers to the Committee were why the Senate needed to hold hearings when the PSC held extensive hearings over the same topic just last year, why there wasn’t more competition in the process, and why the Senate would stop a process that it mandated less than two years ago.
This body passed a law, this body implemented a law, and I call on this body to follow the law.” -Pat Gearity
After the hearing, I spoke with Jim Lanard from Bluewater Wind and he was very upbeat about the future of the wind farm project and was “moved” by all of the public support.
The next hearing will be Wednesday, February 13th at Legislative Hall, and speakers will include the Public Service Commission and the Public Advocate. If you’d like to tell the Energy and Transit Committee what you think, you can click HERE for a list of the members and how to reach them.
February 13th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I’m more concerned about our SERIOUS financial problems with have than wasting our time with this.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
That’s how most of the people at the meeting felt since the PSC already had similar hearings.
February 13th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
I was talking with some people I know in personnel at DelDOT and they are not hiring. They have frozen most hiring and said it’s really tight right now. Right now the only thing they can do is hire casual/seasonal offering no benefits of course. The tones in their voices were grim. It was a wake up call that we have a serious financial problem in this state that needs to be dealt with ASAP. Now all sing along: Indian River Bridge is falling down! Falling Down! Think these pay raise politician mongrels will take a pay cut to help a state out?