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A series of hearings on Bluewater Wind’s proposed offshore wind farm wrapped up Friday, March 7. The hearings explored other forms of renewable energy and heard two companies, Bluewater Wind and Delmarva Power, argue their cases over the stalled contract.
Lawmakers have mixed feelings, both on the hearings and on the process for securing a new power source in the state. Local lawmakers weighed in with their opinions on wind power, long-term contracts and the Senate hearings.
Rep. Joe Booth,
R-Georgetown
“I’ve said from the very beginning the process was flawed. These hearings point out past flaws in the process,” said Rep. Joe Booth.
Booth said he disagreed with the process that led from House Bill 6 to the current debate over the Bluewater Wind contract, but that the four agencies – the Public Service Commission, the Controller General, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, and the Office of Management and Budget – charged with dealing with the matter did the best they could with what they had.
Booth takes issue with the fact that the legislation would have Delmarva Power’s standard offer service customers – residential customers who use about 28 percent of the state’s electricity – pay the entire cost of the wind farm. “There was no thought given to government helping pay for this. The government wanted bids for the project and left individual customers to pay the bill. That was absolutely wrong from the get-go,” he said.
“When you get to it, the problem here boils down to deregulation,” Booth said. While companies were regulated, electricity prices were artificially frozen. Then, after deregulation, the companies wanted to recuperate their money, he said. “We really should still be regulating these companies,” said Booth.
There is a variety of reasons why people are opposed to the project, he said. “I’ll agree to a certain extent that we are forcing a publicly traded company to subsidize another for-profit company. It seems odd that government can do that,” he said.
Something good has come out of the process, despite its flaws, he said. “We’ve certainly led the way, nationwide, on discussions about renewable energy,” said Booth. As far as the hearings are concerned, Booth is skeptical that they will help clear the air on the wind farm issue. Booth said some adjustments should be made if the project is approved, he says. Instead of standard offer service customers paying for the project, Booth says the cost should be spread to all Delmarva Power customers, but not, as some lawmakers want, to all power users in the state.
“I have a problem with having Delaware Electric Co-op customers paying. That’s a customer-owned utility, it’s not apples-and-apples,” he said.
Sen. George Bunting,
D-Bethany Beach
Sen. George Bunting noted that Sen. Harris McDowell, D-Wilmington North, who conducted the Senate hearings, was the sponsor of deregulation. “It has had unfortunate consequences, as we all know,” Bunting said.
He said he has asked Sen. McDowell, who he says is one of the Legislature’s most respected experts on energy, what he hopes to gain by holding the hearings, but has gotten no response.
The hearings are simply rehashing last year’s Public Service Commission hearings on the project, he said.“I don’t see where we are learning anything new. There’s nothing earth-shattering about it,” he said.
Bunting agrees that the cost of the project should be spread to everyone. “In deregulation, the residential customers got nailed. Residential customers use 28 percent of the state’s electricity and most of the commercial users don’t deal with Delmarva Power. The residential customers took deregulation on the chin,” he said.
Bunting’s questions deal with cost, not with wind. “Everybody on the street agrees with wind power. That’s a no-brainer. The devil’s in the details,” he said. “The cost is what’s real. A lot of people live on a meager income in our state. These are real concerns for them,” he said.
But, these ideas have been kicked around long enough, Bunting said. He is in favor of a vote on the project, although he said many fellow legislators are going into an election year and may balk at the idea of a yes-no vote. “Not everybody can truck up and down the state to go to hearings. It’s a diversion tactic,” he said.
The bottom line is that something needs to be done to address the 25-year term of the contract and spread the cost across all power users in the state, Bunting said.
Rep. Gerald Hocker,
R-Ocean View
If the state is going to force a company into a 25-year contract, the Senate hearings are a way of making sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, Rep. Gerald Hocker said.
“It’s wrong to force any company into any contract. It could come back and bite us,” he said. Looking into the future, rate increases as a result of the Bluewater project could be blamed on lawmakers, he said. Pepco Holdings, the parent company of Delmarva Power, is working on the Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway, called MAPP, a high- transmission electricity line. With new transmission lines such as MAPP coming onto the peninsula, rates may be affected by better availability, he said.
Delaware needs to pay attention to the way New Jersey is addressing offshore wind, Hocker said. New Jersey was wise to offer start-up funds to wind companies while making them shoulder the entire cost burden of the wind farms they propose.
The additional cost to consumers that the Bluewater project Hearing
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could cause is an additional tax on the consumer, he said. “We need to go green and have clean energy, but we also need to go about it in the cheapest way possible,” he said.
Hocker sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 40, which would require all ratepayers to help pay the additional cost generated by Bluewater Wind’s proposal. “If everybody is going to enjoy the environmental benefits, why should a person on one side of the street pay any extra?” he said.
The House Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Hocker, met to discuss that resolution and House Concurrent Resolution 38, also on the wind farm, Wednesday, March 12, at Legislative Hall.
Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf,
D-Rehoboth Beach
“I didn’t attend any of the hearings because I don’t like what we’re doing. Just because the results of the process aren’t what somebody wanted, they decided to have another process, and I didn’t want to be a part of that,” Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf said.
The Legislature passed House Bill 6, calling for in-state, affordable power, and the state followed the process outlined in that bill, he said. “These hearings are a dog-and-pony show. I have no idea what Sen. McDowell is trying to accomplish,” he said. Conducting new hearings is like trying to throw away a year and a half of testimony, he said.
The idea of new hearings is not the only thing Schwartzkopf takes issue with. An attorney was brought in to question the Public Service Commission at the Wednesday, March 5 hearing. “I am appalled at what happened at this last hearing. And now I understand we paid a lot of money for it. That is absurd. I am very, very upset,” Schwartzkopf said. The Legislature authorized McDowell to spend $35,000 for legal costs, but Schwartzkopf said he had heard estimates closer to $50,000.
Schwartzkopf co-sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 38, which declares Bluewater Wind’s project meets all the requirements of House Bill 6 and directs the controller general to vote in favor of the contract. The resolution asks the Public Service Commission to determine if the costs of the project should be spread across all Delmarva Power customers.
Sen. Gary Simpson,
R-Milford
Sen. Gary Simpson has not attended the Senate hearings.
The hearings have not changed his opinion, but he says he is better able to see the points of those opposed to the wind farm project. Whether that is due to the hearings or to more information coming out into the open, he can’t say.
The continued focus on an offshore wind farm, especially in the Cape Region, is because of NRG Energy’s Indian River power plant, Simpson said. “We all know a wind farm won’t replace it, but the NRG plant points out the problems with coal-fired plants,” he said. The idea of an offshore wind farm would not be as popular in the region if the Indian River plant wasn’t operating here, he said. It’s no secret that people favor wind energy, said Simpson, citing scientific and unscientific polls conducted in the area.
Contact Leah Hoenen at leah@capegazette.com
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