Governor wants Maryland 'top of class' with ambitious new 8.5GW offshore wind target
Democrat Wes Moore, who took office in January, supports quintupling the present 1.6GW target by 2031 as proposed in a bill in Maryland's legislature
“Maryland is on track to become the offshore wind capital of America and that work is happening right here,” he told a conference in Baltimore held by advocacy group Business Network for Offshore Wind (BNOW).
Moore, a Democrat who took office in January, said offshore wind was a critical driver for the state towards energy independence and would help it achieve 100% clean energy by 2035.
Moore claimed predecessor Larry Hogan, a Republican, was too conservative in advancing clean energy and that his “middle path” with offshore wind was “not enough to get us to where we need to be.”
“I want to be very clear on this. It has been a long time since I've been comfortable being a C student. I don't want to just to get by with passing grades. I want us to win. I want us to be top of the class,” he told the conference.
All three require final approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the lead federal regulator for offshore wind development on the US continental shelf.
Earlier this month, a coalition of civil rights and consumer groups, environmentalists, and labour unions, announced their support for a bill that would raise Maryland’s the offshore wind target to 8.5GW.
The bill in the House of Delgates is sponsored by Lorig Charkoudian, a Democrat. The party controls both the lower house and Senate in Maryland’s General Assembly.