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LOCAL NEWS

2/16/23

Public Interest Groups Demand Federal Regulators Reject the Virginia Offshore Wind Project to Save the Right Whale
Dominion Energy hiding critical information concerning the project’s potential to destroy endangered North Atlantic right whale
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement violates federal rules prohibiting human-caused killing of the right whale
NEWARK, DE (February 15, 2023) – A coalition of public interest groups – The Heartland Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and the American Coalition for Ocean Protection (ACOP) – have filed comments with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), calling the Draft Environmental Impact Statement which BOEM has prepared for the Virginia Offshore Wind Project “woefully inadequate, fatally flawed, and absurdly indifferent” to the destruction of the North Atlantic right whale as a species.
Dominion Energy is seeking permission from BOEM to construct the largest offshore wind facility in the world. It would be comprised of 205 wind towers, each more than 800 feet tall – 1.5 times the size of the Washington Monument. It would span 112,00 acres – four times larger than New York City – located in the open ocean 27 miles off the coast of Virginia. The wind towers, plus 300 miles of trenched underwater cables, lie directly in the north/south migration path of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, only about 350 of which remain in existence.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, the sister agency to BOEM, issued an opinion in 2022 stating that the North Atlantic right whale can only survive as a species if there are zero human-caused fatalities in any given calendar year. Even BOEM’s own evaluation of the Virginia Project concludes that its negative impact on the right whale species will be “major.”
“Not only does the DEIS admit that the project will continue to produce human-caused killing of the right whale,” said Craig Rucker, President of CFACT, “but Dominion Energy has chosen to hide from public inspection all of the critical information relating to the right whale contained in its Construction and Operations Plan (COP).
“Dominion Energy has declined to respond to our request to release this critical information,” Rucker said. “Without this information in the COP, the public is left in the dark as to how Dominion intends to comply with the zero-kill mandate required by BOEM.”
Appendix R of Dominion’s COP, “Discussion of Endangered Species,” forms a critical part of the discussion in the DEIS concerning protective measures for the right whale. On Jan. 20, 2023, CFACT sent a letter by registered mail to Dominion seeking the redacted information contained in Appendix R. The response from Dominion, which declined to provide the information and referred all such inquiries to BOEM, was received by CFACT on Jan. 26.
Numerous dead whales have washed up off the shores of New York, New Jersey and Virginia over the last several months. The dead whale problem has become so acute that three members of Congress – Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), Chris Smith (R- NJ), Andy Harris (R-MD) – as well as the mayors of 12 New Jersey coastal cities, have called for the Biden administration to order cessation of the sonar mapping now being undertaken by offshore wind developers in preparation for later construction of hundreds of wind towers off the coast of states stretching from Massachusetts to Virginia.
Within the past year BOEM has issued a dozen Incidental Harassment Authorizations (IHAs) to contractors working with offshore wind developers. An IHA authorizes these contractors to “harass,” but not kill, marine mammal species, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, while engaging in sonar mapping of wind energy development sites.
“Without undertaking the research and analysis it promised to undertake to protect the right whale, and by rushing the DEIS into publication, BOEM is making a mockery of the environmental review process,” said H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute. “The entire project should be scrapped and abandoned. The massive industrialization of the Atlantic offshore waters caused by the Virginia Project and other related offshore wind projects is fundamentally incompatible with the survival of the right whale.”
“BOEM continues the process of approving the construction of over 3,000 turbines off the east coast in an area greater than the size of Connecticut in critical whale habitat and migration zones,” said David Stevenson, Founder of ACOP. “The agency admits they have inadequate data on operational noise that could drive whales out of the lease areas into surrounding major shipping channels. The whales feed near the surface, and vessel strikes are a major cause of mortality. BOEM needs to take a multi-year pause to answer this and many other uncertainties before approving these large industrial projects.”
If you have any questions or would like to schedule an interview, please contact:
Collister Johnson, Jr.
Senior Adviser
CFACT
703-517-0915
David Stevenson
Founder, ACOP
302-236-2050
Jim Lakely
Vice President & Director of Communications
The Heartland Institute
312-731-9364

June 14, 2022

41st District Republican Club & PAC member Kimberley Kaan won her bid for election to the Millsboro Town Council on Saturday, June 11, 2022.  Kimberley wishes to thank each and every one of you who voted for her.  She won by a substantial margin 284 to 159!  The previous election there were only 39 votes.  Millsboro will be better served now that Kimberley is in office!

CONGRATULATIONS KIMBERLEY!

May 5, 2022

Bethany Beach Boardwalk “We the People” Celebrates One Year
41st We the People 5.5.22

 

OPINION

Headwinds: Troubles Grow for Offshore Wind

Some projects will not be able to attract financing.

 

By David T. Stevenson, Director

Center for Energy & Environmental Policy

 

 

NEWARK, DE (March 14, 2023) — Offshore Wind Developers work to temper opposition by creating an impression their projects are done deals. Certain states and the federal government under President Biden pump out project prices and permit approvals at a rapid pace.

 

However, turbine manufacturers are losing money and raising prices, multiple lawsuits plague approvals as federal permitting agencies act like offshore wind advocates and enablers instead of environmental protectors, and it looks like approved state price guarantees are too low to entice project financiers.

 

Turbines destined for US offshore wind projects will likely be produced in Europe. Siemens Gamesa exited the European stock exchange after losing $1 billion in the 4th quarter of 2022. The company stated the loss came from higher-than-expected warranty repair costs from failed turbine parts.

 

Besides the cost, this doesn’t speak well for product durability, with turbines expected to last 20 to 30 years. Vestas raised turbine prices by 22% after losing $151 million in the 3rd quarter of 2022. General Electric did not receive a single order for offshore turbines in the 4th quarter of 2022, lost a US patent lawsuit killing US sales, and lost $2.2 billion in 2022.    

      

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is approving projects while admitting multiple major negative environmental issues exist:

 

  • Commercial fishing will abandon project areas causing financial and food security losses.

 

  • Structures will lead to radar interference, vessel collisions, and interfere with search and rescue missions resulting in possible human deaths.

 

  • Undeveloped ocean views will change to views dominated by industrial-sized turbines, possibly costing tourism jobs and lowering beach community property values.

 

  • Military operations may be harmed by radar interference impacting national security.

 

  • Scientific research will be impaired, including essential data to determine seafood take limits.

 

 

Acoustical engineers estimate operational noise will exceed the allowed range in project areas forcing whales into shipping lanes where vessel strikes are more likely.

 

A recent German study shows turbine wake effects change currents leading to reduced and less dense zooplankton the whales need for food. Reduced zooplankton and extended distances to find food could lead to thinner whales and less calving.

 

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and BOEM admit critically endangered North Atlantic right whales will become extinct if 0.7 human-induced deaths occur each year.

 

Ten environmental organizations focused on whales, complained about the lack of a federal strategy to protect the endangered whales. Whales are common year round at every approved offshore wind site. NMFS states no turbines should be built within 20 kilometers of an active North Atlantic right whale and no state-approved project can meet that standard.

 

In March 2022, the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimated a project coming on line in 2027 would need levelized revenue of $105.38/MWh considering the 30% federal Investment Tax Credit. With inflation, the price estimate may rise to $116.00 in this year’s EIA estimate.

 

Of eighteen projects with state price approval, totaling 17 gigawatts of capacity, 81% to 97% may be priced too low to obtain financing (see Table 1. below).

 

Mayflower Wind, Commonwealth Wind, and Ocean Wind developers have already publicly stated their guaranteed power prices may not be high enough to obtain financing. New Jersey Public Service Electric & Gas, a 25% partner in Ocean Wind, sold its interest to wind developer Ørsted over their pricing concerns.

 

Table 1.

Capacity and Guaranteed Levelized Revenue by Offshore Wind Project

(Red indicates price likely too low, green price may be too low.)

 

Note. Anderson, J. (2022, January 14). New York finalizes contracts for 2.5 GW of offshore wind power capacity. Www.spglobal.com, Engel, J. (2021, November 9). Dominion explains $10B price tag for Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Power Engineering, The Dismal Economics of Offshore Wind. (2020, August 14). Manhattan Institute, Bates, M. (2021, December 21). Maryland Commission Awards ORECs to US Wind and Skipjack Offshore Energy. North American Windpower.

 

 

Other important news includes:

 

  • Three organizations have made a joint comment on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project reviewed and organized by the same legal team representing Nantucket residents in a lawsuit now before the US District Court in Boston. The retainer was the first use of funds from the ACOP Ocean Environment Legal Defense Fund.

 

  • BOEM has discontinued using a University of Delaware survey it offered as proof that tourism would not be harmed by visible wind turbines near tourist beaches. BOEM continues to make the claim but with no information that supports the claim.

 

  • The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority removed offshore wind in Lakes Erie and Ontario from consideration as it was deemed too expensive compared to other zero-emitting generation technology. This is the same commission that created a 20 mile turbine exclusion zone and canceled an offshore wind project off the Hamptons.

 

It is obvious that some of these projects will not be able to attract financing. Prospective turbine suppliers are having financial difficulties. BOEM’s EIS process is seriously flawed, and the first two approved projects face lawsuits.

 

This reminds me of the Blue Water Wind project off the coast of Delaware. Similar troubling financial clues in 2011 led me to forecast that the project would not receive financing. Within six months the project was dead. Offshore wind is certainly not looking like a done deal.

 

CRI First Annual Delaware Report Card: https://files.constantcontact.com/ffb41090101/a9b7861e-a51d-4786-bdfa-019c62ddfff8.pdf?rdr=true

 

2023 Legislative Priorities for Delaware K-12 Education

Educational Spending, Test Performance, and the Need for Greater School Choice

By Dr. Tanya Hettler, Ph.D., Director

Center for Education Excellence

 

 

Newark, DE (January 31, 2023)  — Delaware’s terrible scores on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have been big news since its release last fall. But it’s more important now than ever to revisit how bad they really were because the 2023 Legislative Session has just started. The time is now for Delaware legislators to introduce and vote for bills to help our students become proficient in math and reading.

HOW BAD WERE THE SCORES?

Delaware ranked 47th in the country with the 4th worst overall test scores. But this is not due to a lack of school funding; Delaware is 9th highest in education spending per pupil out of all 50 states.

Nationwide Test Scores: NAEP

The NAEP, or “Nation’s Report Card,” calculates the percentage of students in each state that scored at or above proficiency level in grades 4 and 8 in math and reading.

The 2022 NAEP scores reflect a sharp drop from the 2019 scores (the last uninterrupted school year prior to COVID-19 closures and remote learning). While Table 1 below shows that COVID-19 closures and remote learning had a considerable impact, this decrease in test scores was just an acceleration of a negative trend that began in 2013.

TABLE 1. Delaware’s 2019 and 2022 NAEP Scores

 

(Table Source: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov)

 

A rule of thumb for the NAEP scores is that a 10 point decline in scaled scores is equal to a loss of one year’s worth of learning. Based on this estimate, Delaware students lost approximately one year’s worth of learning in both math and reading.

Statewide Tests Scores: Smarter Balanced Assessment & SAT

Delaware’s Smarter Balanced Assessment evaluates individual students and schools in 3rd through 8th grade, while the SAT evaluates high school students.

Table 2. State Assessment Data: Smarter Balanced Test & SAT

 

 

(Table Source: https://news.delaware.gov/2022/08/09/2022-state-test-results-provide-baseline-for-pandemic-recovery/)

 

The 2022 Smarter Balanced Assessment results are an average of 13 points worse than the 2019 results. The 2022 SAT results are only slightly worse than the 2019 results. These statewide test results seem to indicate that school closures, remote learning, and mask wearing had a larger impact on younger students than on high schoolers.

PARENTS HAVE A CHOICE IN SCHOOLS

In Delaware, parents have the option to choose a different public school for their child if they are unhappy with the school they are assigned to attend based on their address. However, the process can be quite intimidating, especially for busy parents.

If you’ve visited the Delaware Department of Education’s (DDOE) website, you’ll find that you cannot easily compare schools and districts without spending considerable time clicking back and forth between one school and another.

To help, we’ve compiled and calculated the statewide test scores for all schools, districts, and charters, which can be viewed easily by looking at one document. We’ve also included the impact of COVID-19 closures and remote learning on students’ proficiency by comparing 2022 to 2019 results which are not provided by the state’s website. You can easily access this document on our website under the Policy Centers/Education for Excellence.

RECOMMENDATIONS: 2023 Legislative Priorities for Education

Now that Delawareans can clearly see and compare the proficiency levels of each of the public schools, districts, and charters throughout the state, and based on education expenditures and teacher licensure requirements as discussed in previous articles (see below), the following recommendations are called for:

  • Delaware’s legislators should not place a moratorium on any new charter schools in New Castle County. Doing so would have the effect of eliminating any new options for students in poorly performing schools.
  • We need to reallocate the large education expenditures of our state toward teacher salaries instead of non-instructional costs.
  • Finally, we should loosen the requirements necessary to become a teacher in Delaware to allow more teachers to be hired quickly to meet the current teacher shortages.

These are critical initial steps that legislators can act on in the 2023 Legislative Session that will put Delaware on a positive trajectory toward improving K-12 education for students in the First State.
Dr. Tanya Hettler’s Research Articles on Education:

 

 

Federal Agency Failing to Protect the Environment from Offshore Wind

Until a strategy is complete on how to deal with the adverse impacts of operational noise, no offshore wind projects should be approved.

 

By David T. Stevenson, Director

Center for Energy & Environmental Policy

 

 

NEWARK, DE (January 6, 2023) — The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is responsible for completing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for offshore wind and recommending approval or disapproval of projects to the US Secretary of the Interior. Each project needs its own EIS.

 

BOEM is rushing approvals of up to twenty-five projects on the east coast that may include up to about 3,000 skyscraper-sized turbines occupying a total area larger than the state of Connecticut.

 

BOEM rates 25 areas of environmental concern by both adverse and beneficial impacts. Ratings can be “negligible, minor, moderate, or major.” It is notable the first project approved, Vineyard Wind, was approved despite having 10 of 25 areas rated “moderate” and eight “major” concerns in the Draft EIS.

 

BOEM ignored numerous detailed public comments describing why the project should not be approved.

 

The Draft EIS for Empire Wind, the most recently released document, has 14 areas rated “moderate” and only five rated “major,” while the actual number of major adverse impacts should be ten. The ability to build offshore wind rests on the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. That Act requires there be no interference with reasonable historic uses in federal waters, such as fishing, navigation, and the degraded views impact on tourism.

 

The Endangered Species Act requires the protection of species like the North Atlantic Right Whale. Radar interference may impact national security.

 

These are exactly the activities having the adverse impacts of most concern, but BOEM has downgraded their view of these concerns.

 

BOEM admits commercial fishing will likely be abandoned in the project areas because of insurance concerns over potential lost gear and vessel damage. More collisions are expected from congestion and radar interference. Radar interference may include unwanted radar returns (clutter) resulting in a partial loss of primary target detection and a number of false primary targets, a loss of ocean surface current data, and a partial loss of weather detection, including false weather indications.

 

The military has suggested a 30 to 60-mile exclusion zone because of the radar problems.

 

In addition, the presence of the turbines could complicate offshore US Coast Guard Search & Rescue missions and result in increased injuries and fatalities. Surveys supporting commercial fisheries, such as establishing “take” limits and protected-species research programs, cannot proceed with current methods, and no new methods have been developed.

 

BOEM admits, “The visibility of the Projects would introduce a major level of character change to the view; attract, hold, and dominate the viewer’s attention. The cumulative impact of the project in combination with other projects would also have a major adverse impact, especially because of nighttime aircraft and vessel flashing warning lights.”  The east coast tourism industry is worth about $40 billion a year.

 

BOEM made no connection between the finding of a major adverse impact on the view from the beach and from historic cultural sites and the probability of lost tourism by claiming impacts on tourism would be minor.

 

BOEM ignored surveys they quoted in the past that looked at tourism losses of 19% to 54% if turbines were visible from the beach, especially with flashing lights at night.

 

Those surveys used visualizations of turbines 600 feet tall and shorter. The turbines being considered now are as tall as 1,041 feet. BOEM apparently has no plans to conduct new surveys but should do so before approving projects.

 

BOEM minimizes these major impacts stating lost fishing revenue, higher cost, and lost tourism will be compensated by payments from developers, and there will only be a few more vessel collisions ignoring the fact the collisions could lead to deaths.

 

As the US Department of Interior Solicitor stated in 2020, “It is important to observe that any compensation system established by a lease to make users of the lease area whole financially does not negate interference – indeed, the creation of such a system presumes interference. As such, any proposed compensation process should not be viewed as ‘curing’ any interference since the statute does not provide for such a cure.”

 

Clearly, no increase in injuries and deaths is acceptable.

 

BOEM released the DRAFT BOEM and NOAA Fisheries North Atlantic Right Whale and Offshore Wind Strategy in October. In this document, the risk of killing even one North Atlantic right whale (NARW) a year could lead to extinction in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, the document focuses on the strategy to deal with the temporary noise from construction noise.

 

Available studies show a strong likelihood that operational noise is more important in the long run. Building just a few giant turbines would allow studies of these issues, but BOEM wants to go full speed ahead with 3,000 turbines and then determine if there is a problem.

 

Until a strategy is complete on how to deal with the adverse impacts of operational noise, no offshore wind projects should be approved.

 

BOEM copied a benefit analysis from the New York Public Service Commission that showed the direct benefit from the money spent on construction and operations would be $1.6 billion in 2020. BOEM neglected to look at offsetting costs. Two big cost issues are federal tax credits that could total as much as $2.4 billion, and the premium cost of offshore wind power passed onto electric customers could total another $2.8 billion in 2020.

 

Not even counting lost tourism and lost commercial fishing, costs exceed benefits four to one.

 

Increases in intermittent wind and solar generation since 2009 have replaced reliable, zero-emission nuclear power, not fossil fuels. Natural gas replaced higher-emitting coal and petroleum on a one-to-one basis. Onshore wind and solar, plus higher imports from out of New York State replaced falling nuclear generation. So, renewable power has not reduced emissions in New York.

 

Similar trends have been seen in all eight east coast states promoting offshore wind. Offshore wind will replace already closed zero-emitting nuclear plants, and this trend is likely to continue.

 

Offshore wind will not lower emissions, and lowering emissions is the only reason to build it.

 

Such large-scale interference with historic uses of the ocean resources, high project cost, and threats to endangered species with no likely emission reductions should result in denying approval for offshore wind projects. See full public comments with references at this link, https://oceanlegaldefense.org/news-%26-updates.

 

 

March 22, 2023

Letter to Governor Carney from Drew Sunderlin/President, 41st District Republican Club

“Why Electric Vehicles Will be Detrimental to Delaware”

41st letter to Carney (EV)

 

Delaware State News

Sunday February 6, 2022, page 8

 

LETTER TO THE EDITOR 

Mr. President, here’s what Republicans stand for

“What are Republicans for?” President Joe Biden asked.

Mr. President, that is pretty easy to answer A few years ago, we would have enjoyed this debate in person, but today, you are president, and I am just a guy in the community, but I still take the challenge.

Republicans believe the individual should control his or her own destiny, not the state.

We believe the purpose of government is to protect life, liberty and property. The law exists to allow people to live free of arbitrary coercion, theft or fraud. We believe in all 10 amendments of the Bill of Rights and all three of the civil rights amendments as intended, not as we feel like interpreting them at the moment. We believe government policy should be sensible and modest in a way that makes life better for the people it serves.

We support law and order, as well as redemption and rehabilitation. We believe in voter rights and election integrity. We believe the family is the crucible of society and faith is the foundation of morality; therefore, the government must respect the role of family and religious institutions. We believe in free markets, not just when they make us money. One can’t prosper under the weight of central planning in the long run. Innovation comes from the reward of freedom. Free markets have done more for the world than any social program has to reduce poverty and improve the lives of people. We believe life is precious and the most basic of human rights. We believe work, thrift and keeping the rewards of one’s labor are human rights.

We believe that being able to freely walk the streets, be safe in your home and operate your business without being looted are basic foundations to a civilized society. We favor taxes to fund needed government programs,

not to redistribute wealth. We believe in universal human rights and a colorblind society. We are also against some things. We reject crime, inflation, socialism and anti-family policies. We reject border policies that unleash a drug epidemic and a human-trafficking nightmare. We reject fiscal policies that are eroding how far our paychecks go. We are opposed to policies that stop America from being able to feed itself, defend itself, medicate itself and fuel itself. We need to return the supply chain and its jobs to our shores. We need to put America first, not foreign lobbyists.

That is what Republicans are for, Mr. President: free markets, faith, family and freedom. Republicans believe in the values that made America great.

Dover City Councilman David Anderson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

41st District Republican Club & PAC

P.O. Box 998

Millsboro, DE 19966

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