Delaware is known as the First State mostly because it was the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. But soon it will be known as the First State for another reason: it will be the first state in the United States to build offshore wind power.
And the juxtaposition of this news against last week's news that President Bush and his protege, John McCain, want to build offshore oil platforms could not be starker.
From the Wilmington News Journal:
Delmarva Power and Bluewater Wind said today they have reached an agreement on a long-term power purchase contract needed for Bluewater to build a wind farm off of the Delaware coast.
The deal, in negotiation for months, calls for Delmarva to purchase up to 200 megawatts of electricity from the wind farm.
...
Construction would begin in two to three years and Bluewater would begin delivering wind-power energy around 2012 or 2013. Bluewater has been seeking the state's permission to build a 150-turbine wind farm 11.7 miles east of Rehoboth Beach.
From Tommywonk (more on him in a moment):
Bluewater Wind, Delmarva Power and Senator DeLuca will hold a press conference today at 1:00 at Delmarva Power's headquarters. Bluewater's Jim Lanard says he's "very excited to be attending."
Bluewater will hold public briefings at 3:00 PM at the Ramada Inn, 260 Chapman Road in Newark, and at 7:00 PM at the Boardwalk Plaza Hotel at Olive Avenue and the Boardwalk.
I will be talking with Allan Loudell of WDEL at 4:35 and 5:25 this evening.
No doubt we will have more information after the conclusion of all of these press conferences, and I will update this diary accordingly once we have more informaiton.
But this is a victory for the netroots and the grassroots. It is a shining example of how you personally get involved with your goverment and affect real progressive change. This deal died at least four times by my count, yet the local Delaware community of activists, bloggers and concerned citizens, on both sides of the aisle, kept pressure up on both the State government and Delmarva to get the deal down.
Perhaps it helped that the pressure from coming from both liberal and conservative corners of the netroots and grassroots. A prominent supporter for wind power was Dave Burris, who is the son of a former Republican gubernatorial candidate and the former Sussex County Republican Party chairman in his own right. Mr. Burris, a blogger himself, praised the actions of the aforementioned Tommywonk, a liberal blogger that primarily focuses on financial and economic news and in real life is known as Tom Noyes, for playing a key role in analyzing and diseminating reams of complicated data and information on both his blog, and to the local newspapers. Indeed, Mr. Noyes was a frequent quest on the local political newsradio station in the state explaining the latest twist and turns in the long negotiating process between the State, Bluewater Wind and Delmarva.
Indeed, Delmarva engaged in a pretty deceptive radio ad campaign that attempted to scare its Delaware customers into rejecting wind power. But it did not work, not with the Delaware netroots acting as a truth filter. And Mr. Noyes, Mr. Burris, and other local Delaware blogs kept the pressure up for months, flooding the inboxes of their state senators, state representatives, Governor Minner, Lt. Governor Carney and State Treasure Markell.
This pressure was key in bringing wind power to Delaware:
The News Journal identifies one important factor as to why Delmarva Power accepted Senator Tony DeLuca's invitation to sit down and work out an agreement:
But after an outpouring of public sentiment for a wind deal, and after DeLuca and Lt. Gov. John Carney got involved, Delmarva started negotiating.
So congratulations Delaware for being the first in offshore wind power. And thank you Mr. Noyes and all those in Delaware who pushed aside their cynicism, their frustration and their anger, and actually got involved in their government again.
This proves that progressive change is possible, if we keep at it.