Buoyed by a poll that shows widespread support for offshore wind energy, some Maryland lawmakers say a deal is likely during the 2012 General Assembly session to pave the way for a wind farm off the coast of Ocean City.
“I think we’ll work this out this year, I think that average people support it — the price is not that high,” House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve (D- Dist. 17) of Gaithersburg said Thursday.
Such legislation would be a victory for Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who has made offshore wind power a cornerstone of his environmental policy.
O’Malley has proposed legislation to allow about 120 wind turbines 11 miles off the coast. In the last General Assembly session, it stalled in House and Senate committees amid concerns and uncertainties about the cost. The proposal was committed to further study.
But a new variable has entered the picture — a telephone survey of 805 registered voters last month by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies.
It found that almost 62 percent of Marylanders said they would be willing to pay an extra $2 per month for electricity generated by “clean, local offshore wind farms, instead of coming from coal, oil and gas.”
Only in western Maryland were more than half of those surveyed opposed to paying more for offshore wind to replace fossil fuel-fired power.
Barve said the poll numbers bear out the general public backing.
However, House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby said he is not convinced by the wind power poll.
“I find it hard to believe that [another Gonzales] poll came out showing Marylanders oppose higher taxes at the gas pump, yet they support paying more for [wind] power,” he said. “I think there are still many questions remaining that have not been adequately addressed.”
Democrats have questions, too, said Del. Dereck E. Davis (D-Dist. 25) of Upper Marlboro.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Davis, chairman of the House Economic Matter Committee, which oversees legislation affecting electric utilities.
Still, Del. Tom Hucker (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring said that although explaining a new industry is complicated, more legislators understand the implications this year.
Hucker was lead House sponsor of the 2011 bill pushed by O’Malley. It would have mandated that Maryland’s four investor-owned utilities buy 400 megawatts to 600 megawatts of offshore wind power capacity for 20 years.
Estimates of what the legislation would cost electricity customers ranged from 92 cents to $3.61 more per month for an average household.
Addressing the American Wind Energy Association’s Offshore Windpower Conference on Tuesday, O’Malley urged government, industry and consumers to work together to create a large-scale market for wind energy.
“And to those of you in the industry, I challenge you to answer with a decreased price,” the governor said.
Discussions are ongoing now about what shape the legislation will take in the 2012 session, said Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Dist. 22) of University Park, lead sponsor of the 2011 bill in the Senate.
The multimillion-dollar question is the subsidy issue because wind power “can’t get started without it,” said Pinsky, referring to fledgling efforts to get offshore wind farms up and running along the U.S. coasts.
“I strongly believe once one is built, it’s going to happen rapid fire,” he said.
Commercial, industrial and agricultural users — the largest electricity consumers — want answers and, like utilities, need assurances that wind energy won’t be too burdensome to the bottom line, said Sen. James N. Mathias Jr. (D-Dist. 38), a former Ocean City mayor who co-sponsored the 2011 wind power bill.
“I talked to the governor and I told him I need some help here,” said Mathias, whose Eastern Shore district heavily depends on the poultry industry and agriculture and would be closest to offshore wind farms.
Mathias said he wants assurances that the 2,000 manufacturing and construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs that the O’Malley administration says would be created by an offshore wind farm were “really going to be Maryland jobs?”
It could work “if we can figure it out affordably and it makes sense for residential, agricultural and business customers,” Mathias said.
Hucker said he believes backers of the legislation will deliver the answers and a clearer message with the 2012 bill.
Advocates are more organized, have hired a lobbyist and are putting together a business coalition, he said.
“Now we can focus on where are the details we need to smooth out to get the majority we need,” Hucker said.
Meanwhile, electric utilities are seeking proposals for a 20-year agreement to acquire up to 1,500 megawatts more from natural gas-fired electricity generation in the state.
Although there is a moratorium in Maryland on extracting natural gas from large shale deposits, the state could benefit from lower gas prices as a result of those deposits as it positions itself to generate more of its growing electricity need, state officials said.
Request for proposals were issued last week under the direction of the Public Service Commission and with clear support from O’Malley, who said in a brief interview Tuesday that he would like to see natural gas take the place of much coal-based electricity.
mhyslop@gazette.net
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