David Stevenson's June 9 commentary opposing Senate Bill 159 – a bill that would preempt Sussex County Council's denial of a conditional-use permit to US Wind – confirms that concern over the alleged infringement of local control is unfounded: If enacted, the bill would ensure that state energy policy is determined at the state level for the benefit of all Delawareans, as it should be, and not by a county council misusing zoning laws to promote a view of Delaware's energy strategy that is not shared by the state Legislature.
Stevenson's commentary focused almost exclusively on the professed shortcomings of US Wind's offshore wind project as the justification for council's decision – that the project won't solve the real concern that our regional electric grid is facing blackouts during peak demand periods as soon as this year, that the electric power generated by the project will be insufficient and that offshore wind turbines will harm commercial fishing, aircraft and shipping navigation, and even national security. All of these arguments can be and have been repeatedly rebutted as a matter of science and technology, but – even if they were correct – they have nothing to do with Sussex County land-use law.
Stevenson's only attempt to justify council's decision on the basis of local land-use law cites the general proposition that conditional-use permits must promote the health, safety, morals and welfare of Sussex County residents. But this attempt fails to acknowledge that an electric substation is an approved conditional use in a heavy industrial zone; that there has in fact been a substation for coal-generated electricity on the original property since the late 1950s, state law requires Sussex County zoning "regulations [to] be uniform for each class or kind of buildings throughout any [zoning] district” and that then-Council President Michael Vincent said, after the conditional-use denial, that "there have been a few applications for substations over the years, and county council has never [before] asked the applicant where the power is coming from or where it is going.” In short, SB 159 would not impair local control of land use; rather, council has infringed upon state energy policy.
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