DELAWARE -- The Delaware State Senate Republican Caucus sent President Trump a letter during his first week back in office. The letter urges the President to stop current off-shore wind projects off Delmarva's coast.
The request from the caucus comes after the President signed an executive order targeting offshore wind projects on his first day in office, looking to halt any further leases and review current ones.
Senate Republican Leader Gerald Hocker (R-20) told WBOC he hopes the letter will lead to the president terminating any current offshore wind projects off Delmarva's coasts.
"He signed the executive order for nothing new, but this is in the pipeline," Hocker said. "We want this to stop."
The letter cited concerns about the state's coastal economy, tourism industry, and the environment. The letter also cited the billions of dollars in revenue contributed to the state by coastal tourism. You can find a copy of that letter attached to this article.
"You let it hurt our fishing, you'll see what happens to the tourism in this area," Hocker said. "People come here to fish, crab, and enjoy our beaches. We don't wanna jeopardize that."
According to Hocker, stopping the projects would benefit the people of Delaware.
"I haven't had anybody in my district tell me they want to see those projects," Hocker said. "But I've had an awful lot of them ask what we can do to stop this."
However, leaders at the Sierra Club of Delaware, an environmental advocacy group, said they hope the President does not get involved.
"We see this as just the latest in a series of attacks against renewable and clean energy," Dustyn Thompson, president of the Delaware chapter, said. "It would be a sharp precedent for President Trump to come into a state and undo a negotiated contract between a state and a private company that was done to the letter of the law."
Thompson said the proposed projects would give the region the power it needs in a way that benefits the environment.
"We know that due to the explosive growth of AI and data centers in our region, which Trump is now looking to accelerate, we are going to be facing an energy crisis," Thompson said.
According to Thompson, offshore wind projects both in the works, or future opportunities, would benefit the peninsula.
"We were on the cusp of something great here in Delaware," Thompson said. "We had found a path forward with broad, cross-sector support for a Delaware offshore wind project that t would have benefited our entire region."
