What Offshore Wind Means for Maryland

What Offshore Wind Means for Maryland Environmental, Economic and Public Health Benefits Across the State What Offshore Wind Means for Maryland Environmental, Economic and Public Health Benefits Across the State Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center Elizabeth Ridlington and Rob Kerth, Frontier Group Tommy Landers, Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center Spring 2012 Acknowledgments Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center thanks Jenn Aiosa of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Steve Bunker of The Nature Conservancy, Tom Carlson of the Chesa- peake Climate Action Network, and Andrew Gohn of the Maryland Energy Administra- tion for their insightful review of this document. We gratefully acknowledge the help of Tiffany Trembuell in finding photos. Thanks also to Tony Dutzik and Jordan Schneider of Frontier Group for their editorial assistance. Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center thanks the Town Creek Foundation, the Rauch Foundation, the Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, The Fund for Change, and the Bancroft Foundation for making this report possible. The authors bear responsibility for any factual errors. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of our funders or those who provided review. Copyright 2012 Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center is a 501(c)(3) organization. We are dedicated to protecting our air, water and open spaces. We investigate problems, craft solutions, educate the public and decision-makers, and help the public make their voices heard in local, state and national debates over the quality of our environment and our lives. For more information about Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center or for additional copies of this report, please visit www.environmentmarylandcenter.org. Frontier Group conducts independent research and policy analysis to support a cleaner, healthier and more democratic society. Our mission is to inject accurate information and compelling ideas into public policy debates at the local, state and federal levels. For more information about Frontier Group, please visit www.frontiergroup.org. Cover Photo Credit: Wind turbines off the coast of Denmark. Credit: Mara Plough- mann/istockphoto.com. Design and Layout: Harriet Eckstein Graphic Design Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 4 Offshore Wind Is a Powerful Solution to 5 Maryland’s Electricity Challenges Offshore Wind Can Benefit All Regions 8 of Maryland Eastern Shore 10 Southern Maryland 18 Central Maryland 23 Chesapeake Bay 31 Capital Region 34 Western Maryland 41 Policy Recommendations 47 Notes 48 Executive Summary aryland has abundant potential of roughly two-thirds of the power for generating electricity from consumed in the state annually, using Mwind by deploying offshore wind technology available today. farms. Investing in offshore wind would provide cleaner air and foster a more vi- • Electricity generated by wind tur- brant economy, while helping to protect bines has effectively zero emissions, healthy ecosystems for future generations making it an essential resource for of Marylanders. meeting the state’s clean energy goals Everyone in Maryland—from workers and global warming pollution reduc- in resource-based industries on the Eastern tion targets and for cleaning up our Shore to anglers in Western Maryland— air. Wind power produces no smog has something to gain from offshore wind or soot, and a single, 500-megawatt development. Capturing the vast potential (MW) wind farm could reduce global of offshore wind energy, however, will re- warming pollution by more than 1 quire the state to take action and provide million metric tons annually, equal certainty for developers of offshore wind to the pollution emitted by 196,000 farms by ensuring that the power they pro- passenger vehicles each year. duce will find buyers in the state. Offshore wind power is Maryland’s sin- Developing Maryland’s offshore wind gle largest renewable energy resource. De- resource would bring benefits to all re- veloping offshore wind generating capacity gions of the state, as soon as a wind farm is is one of the biggest steps Maryland can built and for years down the road. Below take to reduce global warming pollution. are some of the benefits that various re- Maryland cannot tackle global warming gions of Maryland may achieve from the and transition to a clean energy grid with- development of offshore wind power. out tapping into offshore wind power. • Employment could increase on • Maryland’s offshore wind power re- the Eastern Shore. Already, sources could generate the equivalent AC Wind is preparing to open a Executive Summary blade-manufacturing plant in Salis- • The entire ecosystem of the Chesa- bury that will employ 200 people. peake Bay will benefit as offshore In the longer term, the low-lying wind’s clean power helps to reduce Eastern Shore could benefit from global warming pollution, stabilizing offshore wind’s contribution to curb- water temperatures that determine ing global warming and slowing sea whether rockfish, oysters and crabs level rise. Sea level is expected to rise can survive in the bay. If emissions by more than a foot in Maryland by rise unabated, by 2100 the bay will be 2050 and potentially by 3.4 feet by as warm as the ocean off South Flori- the end of the century, which could da. With a slower emissions increase, submerge hundreds of square miles the temperature rise will be more of land. moderate, making the temperature of the bay more like the temperature of • Offshore wind, together with other the ocean off the Carolinas. measures to cut global warming pollution, can help to maintain the • Electricity from offshore wind agricultural productivity of Southern produces no solid waste that must Maryland by limiting temperature be disposed of, unlike electricity increases and changes in precipita- from coal burning. For the Capital tion patterns due to global warm- Region, this means that the West- ing. By 2050, a projected 2 to 3° F land and Brandywine coal ash dumps increase in temperature could cause could receive less toxic waste from corn and wheat yields to decline by 8 coal plants, lowering the risk of to 14 percent. A drop in agricultural groundwater contamination. Obtain- productivity could undermine the ing emissions-free electricity from economic viability of farms in the offshore wind is also one of the key region. steps Maryland must take to reduce the future severity of heavy precipita- • Investment in offshore wind facilities, tion events that can cause flooding which require large amounts of steel, across the region. could bring an economic boost to Central Maryland, adding thou- • Emissions-free offshore wind will sands of jobs if workers at Baltimore’s help to preserve the current mix of Sparrows Point steel mill and other trees that make up the forests in the area industries are employed to pro- mountains of Western Maryland. duce steel and fabricate components. Limiting temperature increases Producing electricity from wind due to global warming will help to turbines in Maryland and elsewhere maintain the maples, beeches and could help avoid the hotter and more birches that cover three-quarters of prolonged heat waves that will hit the region. In addition, clean elec- residents of urban areas in Central tricity from wind power can replace Maryland especially hard. Reducing electricity from dirty, coal-fired global warming pollution with off- power plants and will hasten the day shore wind could help avoid some of when fish caught in the region’s lakes the 90 additional heat-related deaths are free of mercury and are safe for projected in Maryland annually by human consumption. mid-century. 2 What Offshore Wind Means for Maryland Building an offshore wind farm will order to provide clear leadership and help Maryland begin to capture the en- vision regarding the important role vironmental, public health and economic of offshore wind in America’s energy benefits of reducing consumption of elec- future and to demonstrate that it is a tricity from coal-fired power plants. While high priority. a single wind farm will not solve all problems of the state’s current dependence on • The U.S. Department of the Interior dirty sources of electricity, construction of should expedite siting regulations an initial wind farm will put Maryland on for offshore wind projects in federal the right path. Ultimately, tapping into the waters, while maintaining a high level full potential of the wind off Maryland’s of environmental protection. In so coasts will deliver even greater benefits. doing, they should maintain strong To encourage the development of offshore standards to make sure that offshore wind power: wind facilities do not have major impacts on wildlife, shipping chan- • The Maryland Public Service Com- nels, commercial fishing grounds or mission should solicit proposals military operations. for construction of wind-powered electricity generation off Maryland’s • The federal government should use coast and establish effective incen- its buying power to facilitate the tives to encourage offshore wind financing of offshore wind. The gov- development. ernment should negotiate long-term power purchase agreements with an • State and federal governments offshore wind developer covering should set bold goals for offshore electricity purchases for military in- wind development in the Atlantic, in stallations and other federal facilities. Executive Summary Introduction ecades ago, National Geographic de- benefits statewide—whether those benefits scribed Maryland as “America in are in the form of cleaner air, new jobs and Dminiature” for its diverse landscape.1 economic activity, or greater protection With ocean beaches, rolling farmland, a against the threat posed by global warm- large estuary, cities and towns of all sizes, ing to our precious environment and to and forested mountains—everything but our health. desert—the various regions of Maryland To reap the greatest benefit from the have evolved with distinct economic, cul- state’s offshore wind power capacity, tural and political landscapes.

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