Offshore Wind Power For Maryland? Pay More? Sure

Brian Lewis/The Gazette.
 Gov. Martin O'Malley
 addresses a conference
 on wind power at the
Baltimore Convention Center

Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) has made offshore wind power a cornerstone of his environmental policy.  O’Malley has proposed legislation to allow about 120 wind turbines 11 miles off the coast. In the last General Assembly session, it stalled in House and Senate committees amid concerns and uncertainties about the cost.

The Center supports the offshore wind power proposal.

A telephone survey of 805 registered voters last month by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies. It found that almost 62 percent of Marylanders said they would be willing to pay an extra $2 per month for electricity generated by “clean, local offshore wind farms, instead of coming from coal, oil and gas.”

The poll was conducted for the National Wildlife Federation and the Offshore Wind Coalition.  (The Gazette, 10/14/2011)