In a statement released after four state agencies agreed to direct Delmarva Power to negotiate with BlueWater Wind to build a wind farm off Delaware’s coast, BlueWater President Peter Mandelstam said he was “humbled” by public support statewide.
Throughout the process, BlueWater Wind credited the public uprising that supported its wind farm as humbling, surprising and a priceless ally in bringing the green technology to Delaware. That effort was also credited similarly by the Public Service Commission staff, including Executive Director Bruce Burcat, whose report backing the wind farm as a primary provider perhaps prompted the later decision to make it official.
The grass-roots campaign supporting the wind farm was led by the unprecedented union of environmental agencies in the area and serves as an example of what such efforts are capable of, despite pressures.
The campaign was integral, some have said, in overcoming political pressures and a late push to support NRG’s proposal to build a clean-coal plant, which was led by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner. It also, according to some, doomed an otherwise popular and qualified candidate in his campaign to assume a state representative’s seat in a recent special election.
“A lot of public officials want to know who is made happy by any decision,” said Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary John Hughes. DNREC is one of the agencies charged with making a decision in the three-way battle to provide long-term energy in Delaware. “They want to know which voters they’re going to lose, gain. In this situation, the alignment was so profoundly with wind that I think it made it very easy to support. We want stable supply and energy here in America. We don’t want to be dependant.”
Rep. Gerald Hocker (R-38th), who said he faced a barrage of comments on the issue, commented himself recently on the reach of the grass-roots campaign. When the legislature first approved legislation prompting the process, no one was educated on the subject of wind power, he said.
“They educated the public in a hurry on the importance of BlueWater Wind and the importance of having clean power,” said Hocker, who supports the plan but was initially reluctant. “I had more people lobbying me in Dover for BlueWater than any others. You made one comment and everybody bombarded you with e-mails, letters and calls.”
The campaign was a union of — at least — Citizens for Clean Power, Citizens for a Better Sussex, the Delaware Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, the Nature Society and their members, who included former scientists and lawyers, and countless others. They wrote letters to editors of local and statewide publications, countered claims through some scientific reports that were filed with the commission, attended every meeting to serve as the very-visible watchdogs and followed each of the processes’ many turns — including those that even those intimately involved admitted were not easy to follow.
As many have noted, though, the campaign was most unique, perhaps, because of its ability to skirt issues that have divided citizens in other states facing similar decisions. The ubiquitous concern that windmills would adversely affect birds was dismissed by an early report, with the Audubon Society agreeing. And coastal residents largely let go of their aesthetic concerns in favor of green energy. Many have cited the scares of global warming and dependence on foreign oil as much larger issues deserving of sacrifice.
“It certainly became a full-time job for some of us,” said Bill Zak, who with his wife, Kit, founded Citizens for Clean Power.
Nick DiPasquale, conservation chairman of the Delaware Audubon Society and former Secretary of DNREC, said leadership provided by the Zaks was integral in building momentum and a base to support wind.
“They were well organized. They knew how to get the word out, get the information out in a way that was understandable,” DiPasquale said. “I look with envy upon their organizational abilities. I think we’ll see them be a presence and force in the future on these kinds of issues.”
The Zaks have been credited with leading the effort by DiPasquale and others, but Bill Zak remained modest recently, placing most of the credit on members like John Austin, a former Environmental Protection Agency staffer who provided much-needed scientific translation, and Pat Gearity, a lawyer who spent much of her time in the last few months working on the issue.
Gearity described her role as “generally just coordinating communications among people who had a concern about reducing air pollution.” And there seemed to be a bunch of them, Gearity said.
“The public grabbed onto this with a sense of desperation. The more information came out, the more excited people became,” Gearity said. “They talked to family, friends and, ultimately, talked to Dover. I’ve never seen anything like this. (I’ve) done a lot of work in other legislatures and I’ve never seen more people get more excited.”
Lynn Bullock, the Democratic candidate in the special election for the 41st district last month, said he came to know firsthand the power of the grass-roots campaign that sprouted in the state.
Bullock, a Millsboro resident — in a radio interview and out in the public — supported the need for a NRG plant as a stable source of energy and provider of jobs. Bullock said the public misunderstood his statements, adding recently that he still has no problem with wind but always supported it as a supplement.
Hughes, an environmental steward and proponent of wind power who reports to the governor, said her statements were similarly misconstrued.
Bullock eventually lost the election by less than 200 votes to Greg Hastings, a Millsboro Republican who spoke about the perils of air pollution and the NRG plant. Bullock conceded that that his position on the issue probably affected some voters’ decisions.
“Everybody thought I was for coal,” said Bullock, a former Millsboro town councilman and mayor, who added that he is undecided on whether to seek a state seat in the future. “They took it and ran with it.”
Both set of statements were eventually targets of the seemingly successful campaign to advance support of wind power as a clean and thoughtful alternative. As many public officials and citizens involved have recently noted, the unsuspecting movement DiPasquale recently called “incredible” had gained credibility, power and a breadth of influence capable of reaching impact to alter decisions in Millsboro and even Dover.
“That effort really kind of struck a nerve with a lot of citizens that are looking at the prospects of global warming,” DiPasquale said. “There is a feeling that we need to do something soon and dramatic. All of those things combined to really generate a huge influence,” he added. “There was no incentive for our organizations other than a sincere belief that this is the right decision.”