January 3, 2025 — Congressman Andy Harris predicts US Wind will fail.
Regulatory uncertainty, he said, may doom the developer’s plans for an offshore wind farm near Ocean City. It means the deep-pocketed lenders required to finance the project may walk away, the Eastern Shore representative said in an interview with OC Today-Dispatch.
After the U.S. Interior Department on Dec. 22 announced a pause on all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction, citing national security concerns, Harris noted how shares of the five companies affected “took a beating on Wall Street.”
“And I think what that means for US Wind – which, of course, is not a publicly traded company, it’s owned by Italian billionaires – it means that they’re unlikely to get the financing,” he said. “At some point they’re going to pull the plug. I expect that actually to be sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pulled the plug by summer.”