OCEAN CITY, Md. -- Maryland Governor Wes Moore was in Ocean City on Friday. It gave us a chance to speak with him about the local communities strong opposition for offshore wind.
The federal government wants to produce 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030 and the state of Maryland wants to help make that happen. Two months ago, Governor Moore signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management(BOEM) to open up more lease areas of Maryland's coast.
Moore told us he believes Marylander's will benefit along the way.
"You're talking about being able to power 3 million homes in the state of Maryland and turn us into a net exporter of clean energy," said Moore. "That's exciting, it's new jobs, it's new opportunities."
While the state's involvement in moving offshore wind projects forward could open up new jobs, commercial fisherman are still worried it will take theirs away.
"They're trying to steal our grounds, they've stolen our bottom, they've stolen the area that we fish in, their last resort is to buy the place where we sell our fish at and once they accomplish that we have nowhere else to work," said Jimmy Hahn, a commercial fisherman who operates out of the West Ocean City Harbor.
Moore said this can be a win-win situation, as long as state leaders put in the work.
"All those conversations have to happen with local leaders, it has to happen with local communities," said Moore. "There has to be measures of both transparency and accountability as to what we're hoping for and what we're going to achieve."
Hahn feels it's too late for conversations. When we asked him what the governor or the state of Maryland could do to show they want to move forward with offshore wind and keep fishing businesses in the harbor, Hahn replied 'there's really nothing they can do'.
A petition is being passes around the local fishing community to show their opposition against U.S. Wind's plans for an operations and maintenance facility in the West Ocean City Harbor.
