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For an instant the Boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach resembled Berkeley, Calif., circa 1968 as citizens - some of whom may have even been in Berkeley in the late 1960s - gathered for National Day of Climate Action, an effort to support continued negotiations for a wind farm off the coast of Delaware.
On a cold, blustery and, fittingly, windy day, around 100 people came out in support of offshore wind power. Recently, a proposal by Bluewater Wind to build a wind farm off the Delaware coast was shot down in a staff report to the Delaware Public Service Commission.
In Rehoboth, citizens passed out fliers and petitions that will be sent to the commission, Office of Management and Budget, the Controller General’s Office and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The Public Service Commission set a Monday, Nov. 12 deadline for written comments
Local couple Marc Weiss and Nancy Sedmak-Weiss organized the event in Rehoboth. The featured speaker at the event was Tom Noyes, whose blog - tommywonk.blogspot.com - provides information about the wind farm project.
“Between now and Nov. 12, the single most important thing we can do is to let the Public Service Commission and the Controller General’s Office and all the state officials know that it is absolutely imperative to continue the negotiations in good faith and enable the Bluewater Wind project to happen,” Marc Weiss said.
Noyes said there were three reasons to go forward with the wind power project: to cut down on pollution, to halt the process of global warming and to create a stable price for electricity.
“If you think that you will be able to buy coal and natural gas and oil at the same price 30 years from now as you can today, you’re dreaming,” Noyes said. “But those who oppose wind power because it costs too much are making a bet. They’re making a bet with our money. They’re betting that coal and natural gas prices will not go up over the next 30 years. I think that’s a bad bet.”
Noyes encouraged those in attendance to write, fax and email the various state commissions to continue negotiations on wind power.
“Your state government needs to hear that you want, that we want these negotiations to continue,” Noyes said. “We don’t want to lose the opportunity to be the first state in the union to build offshore wind power. We don’t want entrenched interests to kill wind power here in Delaware.”
Noyes summed up his speech by saying, “We want to breathe cleaner air, we want to be able to bring our children and grandchildren to this spot in 30 years and we want to protect ourselves from endless increases in the cost of electricity from burning fossil fuels.”
Contact Ryan Mavity at ryanm@capegazette.com
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