Maryland Calls for Offshore Wind Proposals Days After Court Victory
The State of Maryland celebrated the victory in the courts against the Trump administration's order halting licensing for wind energy projects by launching a new call for Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) from the licensed developers. The state reiterated its commitment to wind energy despite the ongoing struggles with federal regulators.
Maryland published the details of the call open to leaseholders. The state will be conducting an information conference this upcoming week. Proposals are due by January 16.
At the beginning of the week, the 17 states and the District of Columbia, which had filed a complaint in May, won a court order that vacated Donald Trump’s Executive Order halting sales and licensing for the wind power industry. The January order had directed federal agencies to pause their effort and to begin an open-ended review of the process. The administration argues that wind power was unfairly advantaged by the Biden administration and that licensing was rushed without full consideration of the impact of the projects.
A U.S. District Court Judge, however, found that the order was “arbitrary and capricious.” U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris in Massachusetts found that the Executive Order violated the Administrative Procedures Act that governs how agencies administer programs.
“This decision is a clear victory for Marylanders,” said Governor Wes Moore. “Despite the president’s unlawful actions, this ruling means we can continue doing the work that helps families keep more of the money they earn. Lowering energy costs requires investing in solutions that work, and expanding clean, reliable wind power is one of the most effective tools we have.”
Maryland and the other states had argued that the actions of the federal agencies were blocking the state’s efforts to secure reliable, diversified, and affordable sources of energy to meet their increasing demands for electric power. They said the federal government was overstepping its authority and also threatening billions of dollars that the states had already invested in renewable power, and specifically wind power.
State law requires Maryland to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2045, with wind power serving as a cornerstone of this effort. Maryland asserted that it has invested heavily in wind energy as part of its plan to fight climate change. In 2023, Maryland set an ambitious goal to develop 8,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2031.
Currently, only one developer, US Wind, which is a partnership of Apollo Global Management and Renexia, is licensed. It has proposed a two-phase project known as Marwind and Momentum Wind. Originally, it was proposing 300 MW with 22 turbines in the first phase and 800 MW with 55 turbines in the other project. It later upped its proposal to a project with 840 and 870 MW and received its federal approval of its Construction and Operations Plan in December 2024.
US Wind has all its major licenses in place, but is currently in court fighting the Trump administration. The Department of the Interior is attempting to rescind the approval and review the license. The project has also been the subject of a fight between the state and federal environmental protection authorities over jurisdiction of licensing.
Two other developers are in an early stage in Mary, but could also participate in the new PPA call. Ørsted has Skipjack Wind, a combined 966 MW project off the coast of the Delmarva peninsula. In January 2024, however, it withdrew the project and said it would be repositioning the project as the power purchase prices were too low to make the project economical. It was also working with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to gain approval of its Construction and Operations Plan.
In August 2024, a federal lease auction was held in the mid-Atlantic. Equinor was the winner of an approximately 2 GW offshore wind lease in the U.S. Central Atlantic. This project is in the earliest stages of the three developers in Maryland.