An Outrageous Lie and Secret Legislator Meetings May Have Killed Wind Power in Delaware
I do not possess the words to express the intense disgust and outrage I feel learning that the Bluewater offshore wind farm proposal was paralyzed as the result of secret meetings and contacts that occurred among the leadership of the Delaware General Assembly.
Like most Delawareans I was prepared for the happy news last December that the four state agencies panel would approve the project. It promised to be a moment that was as historical as it was wise:
On Dec. 18, four state agencies were poised to make a landmark decision. They could have ordered Delmarva Power to sign a 25-year offshore wind power purchase deal with Bluewater Wind.
The proposal had momentum, with the valuable endorsement of the Public Service Commission staff and signs of support from the Minner administration. (link)
Given that literally over 90% of Delawareans support the offshore farm, one naturally thinks that a state government that operated with only a modicum of democratic processes would at least conclude it was in their best interest to give the people what they want. But that isn’t what happened in Dover:
But amid opposition from lawmakers, the agencies voted to table the proposal, sending it into an uncertain future. It was, several agency heads said, a merciful fate, because a single "no" vote could have meant permanent defeat. (link)
Who Paralyzed the Project?
Who scuttled the deal for now? It was the one branch in state government that doesn’t define itself as a public body. While other state agencies are subject to freedom of information requests from citizens and although local governments within
In an interview last week, Larson said he was not voting his own judgment, but instead was being responsive to his constituency -- the Legislative leadership. (link)
There were at least two meetings held by the Democratic and Republican leadership from both the House and Senate as well as Senator Harris McDowell and Rep Bob Valihura (since they sponsored HB 6). The first meeting was held in person and the other meeting was held by teleconference. The chairperson of the House Energy Committee attended the latter meeting.
Importantly, no other members of the General Assembly were told of the meetings. The meetings never received any public notice and no one from the public could participate in them. These meetings were held in secret and they were cause for the four agency panel putting a decision on the Bluewater Wind proposal on hold.
Consider the Hypocrisy
The Senate Republicans have sponsored many laudable open government bills, one of which would require the State Senate to hold public meetings after sufficient public notice of the meetings. Yet the Republican Senate Leadership had no difficulty engaging in these secret meetings that resulted in stifling the process and possibly benefiting Delmarva Power as a consequence. Elected officials who really believed in open government would have at a minimum let the public know about the meetings and their agendas.
The Big Lie
Apparently, after his secret meetings with the leadership of the General Assembly, Comptroller General Russ Larson went to the other three agency heads and in the four agency panel and expressed a concern made by members of the leadership in the General Assembly:
In a private meeting among agency heads that preceded the Dec. 18 meeting, Controller General Russ Larson sought to make approval of the wind farm contingent upon spreading costs statewide, beyond Delmarva customers. (link)
But the issue was not to “make approval of the wind farm contingent upon spreading costs statewide, beyond Delmarva customers.” The News Journal got that wrong.
The real issue was relatively uncomplicated. Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf explained it recently in an e-mail to all the members of the General Assembly:
The week before that vote, Russ [Larson] met with the House and Senate leadership for their input. One of their concerns was spreading out any increase in initial costs over a larger customer base which reduces the individual cost per household because HB 6 only pertained to residential and small commercial customers of Delmarva Power. The PSC staff recommended that the cost be spread over Delmarva's entire customer base and that was acceptable and could be accomplished by the PSC without any legislation.
But then the real issue got substituted in public discourse with a lie:
Now here is where the facts get a little fuzzy. Sometime after that meeting and before the scheduled vote, the initial recommendation of the PSC was misrepresented and the idea was put forth to spread the cost over all of the energy users in
The lie became a rumor that spread throughout newspapers, talk radio, blogs, and political e-mail lists. Since we now know that the rumor was a lie it’s fairly clear that the rumor was a poison pill deliberately disseminated to kill the deal. One confidential source told me the frequent advocate for Delmarva Power in the state Senate, Harris McDowell, was the first to spread the canard and may have been its author.
It’s not difficult to imagine why the rumor would be objectionable to many Delawareans, not the least of which many of those who support the offshore wind power project. Not all Delawareans get their energy through Delmarva Power and it would be unfair to charge those who don't for the construction of an energy source from which they receive no benefit. The widely floated nonsense that the offshore wind project needed all Delawareans to pay for it was a dirty trick designed to rouse public and legislator enmity against the project
But the facts of the real issue didn’t get in the way of Senate Minority Leader Charlie Copeland repeating the invented issue:
Sen. Charles Copeland, R-West Farms, said he suggested to Larson that the costs be spread statewide, since everyone would be getting the benefit. (link)
There can be no greater example of how the sneaking, secretive, elitist and autocratic nature of the Delaware General Assembly works against the best interests of
