January 14, 2025 — In early December, a new website appeared online urging Sussex County, Delaware, residents to contact their council members and tell them to deny a permit for a proposed offshore wind farm.
The website – StopOffshoreWind.com – materialized days before the Sussex County Council’s vote on the permit, which would allow for construction of an electrical substation needed by US Wind Inc. to build its massive ocean-based power plant.
StopOffshoreWind.com included the names and contact information for council members, as well as an online message form under the phrase, “Write a Letter to your Sussex County Councilmembers.”
“Tell the Sussex County Council to DENY this permit,” it said.
What it did not show were the names of the people or companies that had created and funded it.
Spotlight Delaware has since learned that the website was the creation of a coalition of Maryland wind farm opponents, funded and led by the government of Worcester County, home to Ocean City, a summer beach hotspot that is the primary driver of the county’s tourism-centered economy.
And, many of the local business owners there believe the sight of windmills 15 miles offshore would make the beaches less attractive to tourists.
Zach Bankert, executive director of the Ocean City Development Corp., said his group had led local opposition to offshore wind development in past years. But, with a staff of just two employees, he said the operation was too small to be effective, which is why the county’s Office of Tourism and Economic Development recently took it over.