Posted on 08/06/25
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 6, 2025 - Maryland’s energy outlook is growing increasingly precarious as the Trump administration delivers a fresh blow to the state’s offshore wind ambitions — even as demand for electricity is projected to soar with the rise of artificial intelligence and data centers.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it would revoke all designated Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, citing executive orders signed by President Donald Trump after returning to the White House for a second, non-consecutive term.
BOEM “is de-designating over 3.5 million acres of unleased federal waters previously targeted for offshore wind development across the Gulf of America, Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight, California, Oregon, and the Central Atlantic,” the agency said in a statement.
The move sends shockwaves through an already fragile sector in Maryland, where offshore wind projects have been slow to materialize and where grid capacity is already straining under growing demand.
Spotlight on Maryland asked Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain during a Zoom interview Tuesday whether offshore wind has a future in the state following BOEM’s sweeping decision.
That’s a good question,” McIlwain said. “I would say we have a long way to go when it comes to US Wind, in Maryland, and we will continue to push forward.”
While the federal action does not immediately affect US Wind’s proposed 114-turbine project off the coast of Ocean City — which already holds a Maryland state permit — analysts say the move undermines long-term investor confidence and complicates expansion efforts for developers along the Eastern Seaboard.
Nancy Spoko, US Wind’s vice president of external affairs, told Spotlight on Maryland by email that the company’s position remains unchanged.
“US Wind remains committed to delivering massive amounts of much-needed energy for the region,” Spoko said.
But on the ground in Maryland, that commitment has yet to translate into visible progress. Despite early promises from Gov. Wes Moore and US Wind to open a 550-employee wind turbine manufacturing facility at Tradepoint Atlantic in Edgemere by 2025, Spotlight on Maryland found the proposed site largely dormant.
When asked if she is frustrated by the project’s slow pace, McIlwain acknowledged the delays and suggested federal interference may be a contributing factor.
“It’s frustrating, but it’s a lot of uncertainty,” McIlwain said. “When there is a lot of uncertainty, people slow down. Maybe that is part of the whole strategy on the part of the federal government, but it certainly is not a slowdown because the company has changed its mind or anything.”
There is so much uncertainty going on, it is hard moving forward without knowing what tomorrow will bring,” McIlwain added.
Maryland Del. Ryan Nawrocki, R-Baltimore County, supports the Trump administration’s efforts to limit offshore wind and believes the state’s flagship wind project is destined to fail.
“They’re super concerned about the governor’s project off of Ocean City – this large utility-scale wind project that frankly, in my opinion, is ultimately going to die, but the state is going to spend millions of dollars to get to that point for it to die,” Nawrocki said.
As political tensions flare and progress stalls, Maryland’s energy demand is surging — and warnings from PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator for 13 states and Washington, D.C., are becoming more urgent. While PJM predicts a slight increase in baseload demand, it has issued more serious concerns about peak periods, when the grid could buckle under pressure. That includes hot summer days and cold winter nights that may strain the grid to its breaking point, leading to rolling blackouts.
In fact, the situation in the Baltimore region has become so severe that U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a 90-day emergency waiver allowing the H.A. Wagner power plant at Brandon Shores to exceed its environmental pollution limits — a last-ditch effort to stave off blackouts.
“PJM assesses that if another heatwave similar to that which occurred in late June 2025 were to occur, there are insufficient run hours remaining because of the Operating Limit,” Wright wrote. “PJM is also coordinating generator and transmission outages at appropriate forecasted load levels to minimize the need to run Wagner Unit 4 to mitigate transmission limitations impacting the BG&E Zone that could result in firm load shed.”
PJM defines “firm load shed” as a “controlled, temporary power interruption, used as a last resort to maintain system stability” — more commonly known as rolling blackouts.
With the future of offshore wind development hanging in the balance and conventional power plants nearing their operational limits, Maryland leaders face difficult choices about how to bridge the looming energy gap.
Spotlight on Maryland asked McIlwain what the solution is to Maryland’s escalating energy cliff – with federal actions rolling back wind support, new infrastructure projects stalling and aging power plants running beyond their environmental limits.
“The alternative is we have to pivot,” she said. “It’s exactly what we have to do, but what we are not going to do is just sit back and stop everything and mope around.”
“We’re going to continue to find ways to do what we need to do to make Maryland cleaner,” McIlwain added.