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The Senate Energy and Transit Committee has released its final report criticizing Bluewater Wind’s proposed offshore wind farm, and the state agencies that have been overseeing the wind energy process. A minority report has also been released, harshly criticizing the committee report. Other supporters of the wind farm call the final Senate report a sham.
In December, a decision on a proposed contract between Bluewater Wind and Delmarva Power was tabled. The Senate Energy and Transit Committee then undertook a controversial set of hearings on renewable energy in the First State and has now released its report.
The committee heard days of testimony and concluded Bluewater’s proposed offshore wind farm is not in the best interests of Delaware ratepayers and it will put undue financial and risk burden on the shoulders of Delmarva Power’s standard-offer service ratepayers.
“Delaware’s citizens should not assume the large risk or pay the exceptionally large premium associated with the offshore wind farm proposed by Bluewater Wind,” says the report.
Committee member Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, says the process was manipulated from the start. Peterson and Sen. Catherine Cloutier, R-Heatherbrooke, have now published a minority report. Changes made to the version of the report approved by the committee are unethical, says Peterson, who is considering filing ethics charges against Chairman Sen. Harris McDowell, D-Wilmington North.
Peterson and Cloutier say Bluewater Wind would sell electricity to Delmarva Power, which would, in turn, sell to its customers. Financing, maintenance, liability and the risk of nonperformance are all on Bluewater Wind, not the standard offer service customers, says the minority report.
The report is intended, in part, to “refute some of the many errors – factual, analytical and legal” of the committee report. The minority report supports Bluewater Wind for price stability and reliability and offers biting criticism of the committee hearings.
“The minority statement reveals the sham that the Senate Energy & Transit Committee Report really is. Sen. McDowell went into these hearing with a preordained conclusion and manipulated the process throughout. The conclusions in his report should be totally discounted,” said Delaware Audubon Conservation Chair Nick DiPasquale.
“It is a cruel irony that Sen. McDowell chose Earth Week to launch his broadside against the largest, most significant pollution-free energy project in the state’s history,” said University of Delaware professor Jeremy Firestone.
McDowell’s office did not return calls for comment.
The committee report is critical of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the way it handled the process that selected Bluewater Wind’s bid over bids from two other competitors, leading to a proposed power-purchase agreement (PPA) with Delmarva Power.
The committee report says the PSC deviated from its normal procedures in discovering and examining the facts of the case and unilaterally decided to take on a hybrid approach of a wind farm backed up by a natural gas-fired plant.
The minority report says the committee report framed many of its criticisms as criticisms of the PSC. It notes that because four state agencies were involved and two unanimous decisions were made regarding Bluewater Wind, blame can’t be placed squarely on the PSC. The report says, “… any criticism of the PSC is also a criticism of the other two state agencies and of Russell Larson, the controller general (and by extension, Jennifer Cohan, who participated in many of the proceedings on his behalf).”
The minority report says an objective look at the facts supports the actions of Larson and Cohan as rational, reasonable and lawful. “Any suggestion to the contrary does a disservice to those honorable individuals,” says the minority report. Firestone praised the minority report for raising that point. He said the committee report was clearly singling out the PSC for criticism, even though three other state offices gave the same approval.
In one day of committee hearings, attorney Randall Speck questioned the heads of the PSC and the public advocate, in what many have called a cross-examination. Willett Kempton, a University of Delaware professor, questioned why the state would go after its own employees.
Critics say the committee report echoes questions of equity raised by Delmarva Power over requiring its standard offer service customers, who use about a quarter of the electricity in the state, to pay for the wind farm project.
Delmarva Power spokesman Bill Yingling said, “We have not reviewed the final report yet, but our concern remains. We believe that Bluewater Wind’s proposal is too expensive to put on the backs of our customers for 25 years.”
The report, in draft form, said the Senate should direct the controller general to vote in opposition to the offshore project. The final version, however, says the controller general should give great weight to the committee report.
“It’s slightly different in tone from the draft. They took out the explicit recommendation against the wind farm. In general, it is a worked-over version of the same draft report,” said Firestone. A copy of the second draft report was leaked last week.
Peterson said the report is less credible for the changes that were made after the report was approved. “At the very least it is unethical,” she said. Text was added to the final version not included in the draft the committee approved, Peterson said.
“The most important feature of the McDowell report is what isn’t included. You might call it the dog that didn’t bark in the night. McDowell was unable to include language in the report that, if adopted by a vote of the Senate, would have killed the project,” said Wilmington economist Tom Noyes. “Expert witnesses were selected based on their willingness to tell the chairman what he wanted to hear and his questions were designed to get the answers he was looking for,” reads the minority report.
“Harris McDowell promised that his hearings would be ‘fair, above board and impartial.’ If that had been the case, then the minority report would not have been necessary,” said Noyes.
Lewes-based grassroots group Citizens for Clean Power (CCP) is asking the committee to provide them with information about money spent during the hearings. “We are fed up with the secrecy that surrounded the Bluewater Wind hearings,” said CCP member and attorney Pat Gearity.
Peterson received a copy of the letter from CCP but says she doubts the committee will discuss the matter.
“McDowell will make that decision all by himself,” she said. Bluewater Wind spokesman Jim Lanard said, “Now that these reports are behind us, Bluewater feels it is time to begin to move toward resolving this matter.”
Contact Leah Hoenen at leah@capegazette.com
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