Offshore Wind: Supported by Public, but Undermined by Drilling

Nearly two thirds of Maryland voters polled support the construction of offshore wind power, even if it means paying a dollar or two more per month, according to a new survey released today by advocates of an offshore wind farm east of Maryland's Eastern Shore.

The question of whether Maryland’s utilities should help subsidize the construction of a billion-dollar-plus offshore wind farm will be one of the subjects debated in the General Assembly session that starts today in Annapolis.

Although public support for offshore wind appears strong, the economics of this kind of development  -– which would be the first offshore wind farm in America –- is fragile, in part because of competition from natural gas.

More than 3,000 gas wells have been drilled over the last five years in the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The economic waves from this second source of energy could sink potentially Maryland’s offshore wind farm before it is even built, according to Matt DaPrato, an analyst with IHS Emerging Energy Research.  DaPrato said the flood of increasingly cheap natural gas from the Marcellus has driven down the price of electricity over the last three years.

These lower prices and the scheduled expiration of federal tax incentives for wind are making it harder for proposed wind farms to secure financial backing, because wind is increasingly expensive by comparison to natural gas, DaPrato said.

“Alternative energy, like offshore wind right now in particular, is a little bit at a price premium,” DaPrato said.  “And when the cost of electricity goes down, fuelled by the decline in cost of natural gas, what you see is that premium gap widen. And especially in these hard economic times, it can be a little bit harder for rate payers and tax payers to handle.”

Malcolm Woolfe, Director of the Maryland Energy Administration, said Governor Martin O’Malley intends to keep pushing for offshore wind, even if it costs consumers a dollar or two more per month than fossil fuels.

  “This is a long-term vision for how do we make Maryland a more competitive, prosperous place,” Woolfe said. ”And having a greater fuel diversity, greater fuel security, a cleaner future, not only helps the environment, but it helps Maryland’s long-term economy.”

Wind advocates want lawmakers to essentially require power companies to help pay to build wind turbines because a 2004 state law requires the utilities to buy 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2022.

Maryland State Senator Paul Pinsky, co-chairman of the senate environmental matters subcommittee, said it would be a tragedy if Maryland’s offshore wind proposal was torpedoed by hydraulic

fracturing for gas in the Marcellus shale.  EPA is investigating possible links between drilling and drinking water contamination.

“If we just rely on fracking and the Marcellus shale, we do two things: We might harm the drinking water of Maryland residents, as well as undercut the ability to start to shift to clean energy,” Pinsky said.

Katherine Klaber, president of a gas industry group called the Marcellus Shale Coalition, argued that electricity customers and businesses benefit more from drilling than from more expensive wind farms.

“ For us as Americans to be pitting one industry against another, or one energy source against another, is not going to make us stronger,” Klaber said.

Over the long term, the cheapness of natural gas may be temporary and superficial, experts warn.   The price of gas does not take into account the costs of water or air pollution or global warming; or the cost of ripping up rural roads and landscape for drilling.

There is also a cost of inaction.  All fossil fuels –- including natural gas -– will eventually run out.  This limit is as sure as the winds blowing over the Atlantic Ocean.  If our economy does not  transition to renewable energy -– wind, solar, or something else -– it will be lights out for everyone, sooner or later.

By Tom Pelton

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Comments

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Fracking will backfire and bring severe harm to the environment, including Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and to humans. Meanwhile, as noted in this article, we lose time and ground in moving forward with enviro-friendly alternate energy systems.

Here is a link to a new blog article I just posted on this issue. http://tinyurl.com/6tdown5

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