It's too late to be bickering about the view in OC
If the Ocean City Council is all for renewable energy, I’m not sure what “all for” means.
The issue at hand is US Wind’s $4 billion proposed project that would install wind turbines 12 to 14 miles off the Ocean City coast. That would result in a row of thumbnail-sized turbines visible from the beach. When the Council members recently saw a rendering of what that would look like, they objected, calling it “visual pollution.”
The Council asked US Wind to move the turbines 6 to 8 miles offshore. That would cost the company about $1 million extra per mile, but the company offered to move them 5 miles, which is pretty close to what the Council asked for.
But the Council still isn’t sure.
“I’ve expressed again and again that I am all for sustainable energy and understand how important it is for us to move to more renewable technology,” Councilwoman Mary Knight was quoted as saying. “But as I said at the council meeting, we really just don’t want to see it.”
Yes, and I’m all for a neat-looking lawn. I just don’t want to have to mow it. I’m all for new roads and bridges. I just don’t want to pay for them.
A discussion of “visual pollution” in Ocean City is deeply ironic, because to nature lovers, the city itself could easily be termed visual pollution. Imagine the outcry there would be today if someone proposed building a town on a pristine barrier island. Yet Ocean City sits on what used to be just such a site.
But many people aren’t bothered at all by Ocean City being on the island, as it’s already there. I’m going to take a guess that many people would probably think the turbines look pretty cool, once they are already there. A similar project near New Shoreham, Rhode Island has tourists hiring taxi services to take them up close to look at the turbines, according to a recent DelmarvaNow story.
As I noted in a previous column about turbines and solar panels, these things become part of the landscape. Maybe someday Ocean City’s turbines will end up on a postage stamp as being an iconic symbol of the town. The town might want to make sure they’re not too far out to sea, so they show up well.
More importantly, there’s a lot more at stake here than the view. Our dependence on fossil fuels is directly causing climate change, which will have a huge impact on Ocean City and other coastal communities as sea levels rise. The impact is already here, as it takes less of a storm to cause serious coastal damage than it used to.
Like it or not, we’ll likely all have to put up with our view being ruined a little (or enhanced, depending on your taste) by renewable energy infrastructure like solar panels and turbines, at least until we come up with a better idea for energy. A coastal community like Ocean City is not in a good position to complain about it, to say the least.
We used to have coal stacks belching clouds into the air. Frankly, I’ll take the turbines over that. Put them in my backyard too.
Andrew Sharp is a producer at The Daily Times and delmarvanow.com. Email him at asharp@dmg.gannett.com. Find him on Twitter @buckeye_201 and on Facebook @andrewsharp201.