The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) acted to “vacate” or render a federal permit invalid for the Maryland Offshore Wind project on Sept. 12.
The Maryland Offshore Wind Project would ultimately consist of up to 114 wind turbines, four offshore substations and a meteorological tower 10 nautical miles off the coast of Ocean City. US Wind, the company that plans to complete the project, expects the it to generate 2,200 megawatts of energy, enough to power more than 718,000 homes.
In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to temporarily cancel new or renewed offshore wind energy leases. The latest filing said BOEM initially “underestimated” the impacts such projects would have on search and rescue helicopters navigating the area and that impacts on commercial fisheries were not “sufficiently mitigated.”
US Wind has not started construction. But it reached a major milestone when the U.S. Department of the Interior, which BOEM works under, approved the project’s construction and operations plan in December 2024. Nancy Sopko, vice president of external affairs for US Wind, wrote in an email that the company is confident the federal permits are legally sound.
Two years ago, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced the state’s plan to reach 100% carbon-free energy by 2035 and touted the offshore wind project as the main mechanism to reach that goal. As of 2023, renewable energy provided 13% of the Maryland’s total in-state electricity.
“There’s no way to achieve our targets without offshore wind energy,” said Brittany Baker, Maryland director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
The U.S. Department of the Interior plans on conducting a new analysis of the permit and will then decide whether to approve the construction and operations plan.
This story first appeared at bayjournal.com on Sept. 17, 2025.
