Slower MD Pol Announces Death Of Wind Project

Bohanan calls wind-turbine project ‘dead’

Del. John Bohanan (D-St. Mary’s) told the St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday that he expects the proposed wind turbine project across the Chesapeake Bay in Somerset County is about to die.

The Great Bay Wind Energy Center has been controversial on both sides of the bay. In St. Mary’s, elected officials and others say the turbines would interfere with sophisticated and unique radar testing at Patuxent River Naval Air Station.

Both Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) have intervened to try to halt the project to allow time to complete a $2 million study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the effect of wind turbines on the Navy base’s ADAMS radar system.

The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill this year to delay the Great Bay project by one year until that study is completed. The developers of the project, Pioneer Green, said that delay would derail the investment. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), a proponent of clean energy, vetoed that bill.

Speaking at a candidate forum Wednesday, Bohanan said, “Later this week you will hear we’ve been very successful ... I believe the project is dead.” Bohanan said he had not shared the latest development with other Southern Maryland lawmakers yet, including his brother-in-law, state Sen. Roy Dyson (D-St. Mary’s, Calvert, Charles).

Dyson, who addressed the wind turbines at the forum before Bohanan spoke, said they were a problem for Pax River. He said the turbines “could threaten, in my opinion, the long-term viability of the base.”

The Great Bay Wind project is waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration to issue a final determination of “no hazard,” which would include the Department of Defense’s formal stance on the project.

Bohanan said Thursday he is “anticipating that the DoD will file a formal objection later this month.”

While I'm not in favor of highly subsidized, bird eating, intermittent power sources, my secret inside source tells me the solution is as simple as using radar absorbent paint on the wind turbines.