Why Should Delaware Care?
Skyrocketing electricity prices have sparked calls from across the mid-Atlantic for the construction of new power plants. But a proposed offshore wind farm near the Maryland, Delaware state line has drawn stiff opposition from shoreline businesses and residents. The subsequent debate has led to two years of political tensions between state officials in Dover and Annapolis and residents living near the two states’ beach communities.
The Baltimore company behind plans to build a wind farm off the Ocean City, Md., coastline scored a victory last week when a Delaware judge upheld a law stripping Sussex County of its ability to deny a permit for the renewable energy project.
While the ruling represents a step forward for U.S. Wind, the future of the company’s ambitious yet controversial project is far from clear.
The company still faces a bevy of other challenges to its proposed 114-turbine offshore wind farm — including an ongoing federal lawsuit brought by Ocean City, and administrative challenges to permits granted by Delaware environmental regulators.
The project’s federal incentives could also be in peril following the passage of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year. The new law threatens to cut the lucrative credits for previously approved alternative energy projects, if their on-site construction does not begin by this July.
Despite the potential challenges, Delaware’s governor and attorney general each cheered Wednesday’s ruling.
In a press release on Friday, each official stated that the lawsuit challenging the Delaware law that sought to clear the path for the wind project’s land-based substation was the result of politics getting in the way of energy policy.
The “ruling makes clear that Delaware’s energy future is a statewide issue that should be decided by the whole State — not one municipality,” Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in the statement.
The substation, planned for a property next to the Indian River Power Plant in Dagsboro, would link electricity generated offshore to the regional electric grid.
US Wind has said the wind farm has the potential to generate as much as 1,800 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 600,000 homes.
Sussex County and the Town of Fenwick Island brought the lawsuit in Delaware’s Court of Chancery last year.
Their attorney Jane Brady told Spotlight Delaware on Friday that she will hold discussions with county officials to determine whether their side will appeal the ruling to the Delaware Supreme Court.
A spokesman for Sussex County said officials are “still reviewing the decision and will withhold comment at this time.” CoastTV reported that Fenwick Island Mayor Natalie Magdeburger, a longtime opponent of offshore wind, said she hopes “Sussex County will continue to pursue it.”
For its part, U.S. Wind also indicated that political differences were at the root of the legal dispute over the state’s substation law.
In an emailed statement, company spokeswoman Nancy Sopko said the court’s decision “reinforces the validity of state law that prioritizes homegrown energy development over politics.”
‘Foundational’ to the energy future?
The Delaware law challenged in the lawsuit was also at the center of a partisan political battle last year – one that nearly derailed the passage of the state’s capital budget.
During the final days of Delaware’s 2025 legislative session, Democrats proposed Senate Bill 159 in an effort to override Sussex County’s previous denial of a land-use permit that would allow U.S. Wind to build its substation near Dagsboro.
In response, Senate Republicans decried the bill as legislative overreach, and argued that any dispute over the permit should be decided in the courts. Despite the pleas, Democrats moved forward with the bill, as the GOP did not have enough votes to defeat it directly. Instead, they used their sole piece of leverage and blocked the state’s bond bill — which requires a supermajority vote to pass.
The move sent Democrats and Republicans into negotiations that lasted late into the night during the legislative session’s final hours.
At the time, State Sen. Stephanie Hansen (D-Middletown) called the U.S. Wind project “foundational” for Delaware’s energy future.
But Senate Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn (R-Georgetown) argued that Democrats sought to erode counties’ rights of “local control” – a theme that also emerged in separate legislative debates at the time over marijuana regulations.
Ultimately, the two sides agreed on an amended bill, which promptly passed the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both chambers also later passed Delaware’s billion-dollar bond bill, with each celebrating the passage with applause.
Later in the year, Brady filed the challenge to Senate Bill 159 on behalf of Sussex County and Fenwick Island.
