Though Maryland Democrats lament the potential loss of a long-planned offshore wind farm on the coast of Ocean City, Republicans and local representatives herald President Donald Trump’s push to stop the project as a victory.

“President Trump’s decision to move toward revoking US Wind’s federal permit is a very positive development for Ocean City,” Mayor Rick Meehan, a Republican, said in a statement Tuesday. “This action acknowledges the validity of our objections and represents a major step in protecting our community, our coastal environment, our commercial and recreational fishing industries and the future of Ocean City.”

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who has been publicly feuding with the president, said in a statement Tuesday that the cancellation of a project that was poised to net $1 billion in investments, create thousands of manufacturing jobs, and generate more in-state electrical supply is “utterly shortsighted.”

“Maryland is committed to wind because we know that building more generation to meet demand, bringing in investment, and creating good-paying jobs is not political — it’s progress for Marylanders,” Moore said. “The President’s actions will directly lead to utility-rate hikes by taking off most promising ways for Maryland to meet its looming energy-generation challenges.”

In a Monday filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, lawyers for the Trump administration said that the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is “reconsidering” its previous approval of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project Construction and Operations Plan, a little over 10 miles off the coast of Ocean City.

Last September, President Joe Biden’s Administration approved the Baltimore-based US Wind project to build the offshore wind turbines.

As one of his first acts in office, Trump, who has publicly railed against wind farms, signed an executive order to temporarily pause leasing and permitting for wind energy projects, leaving the Interior secretary to review existing leases and determine whether they should be terminated or amended on an ecological, economic, and environmental basis.

Many Worcester County locals opposed the construction of the turbines, saying that it would upend the town’s two major fish houses, where commercial fishermen go to offload and sell their catches.

In an effort to stop the project, the Worcester County Council approved a resolution in December to purchase the properties in West Ocean City Harbor, aiming to save the local fish houses.

Meehan said in a statement to The Sun that “Ocean City has voiced strong opposition” to the project for the past eight years.

“Unfortunately, we believe this project was fast-tracked and that our serious concerns have been largely ignored throughout the review process,” he said.

Moore, a proponent of offshore wind, last summer signed a memorandum of understanding to commit to finding new lease areas for projects along the Maryland coastline, saying at the time that he believed the expansion of offshore wind would ensure job creation in manufacturing components for wind turbines and the development of a greener economy.

Maryland is currently facing challenges in generating enough of its own energy in-state.

“This offshore wind project offers the promise of lower energy bills and more good-paying jobs for Marylanders, and it is moving forward only after a thorough federal permitting process that was done by the book,” U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday. “Any attempt by the Trump Administration to pull the plug on it would jeopardize that promise — which is why we’ll fight in Congress and the courts to keep it on track.”

Moore emphasized on Tuesday that raising the turbines would have added two gigawatts of additional energy capacity in the coming years.

“Few if any other technologies represent such potential for utility-scale energy generation without adding the harmful public effects of climate pollution,” he said. “And to do so under the guise of establishing America’s energy dominance — while leaving out renewable sources, which are often the most plentiful and affordable — shows us again that the President cares more about putting his own whims over the good of the country.”

Maryland House Economic Matters Chair CT Wilson, a Charles County Democrat, has sponsored legislation to push wind energy forward in Maryland. In an interview Tuesday, he, like Moore, also called the stoppage “shortsighted,” saying that there’s “nothing that they’re going to say to replace it besides, ‘drill, baby drill.’”

Wilson called fossil fuels, including natural gas, “old ideas,” and said that jobs will be lost due to Trump’s distaste for green energy.

“So congratulations,” he said. “If that was the goal — to create more unemployment — it’s doing it.”

Saying that she did not want to “diminish and dismiss people’s concerns about like something is happening in their community” and making clear she wants their voices should be heard and politicians should engage with them, Del. Lorig Charkoudian, a Montgomery County Democrat, said that “in the end, as a policy maker, the decision I have to make is do we burn fossil fuels in a way that is poisoning a community? Or do we have clean energy that people will see but won’t be harmed, physically harmed by it?

“I think that’s when we — when I — as a policy maker, ask that question, I have to continue to work to build the stuff that we can see (like wind turbines), but .. we’re not poisoning a community with it, ” said Charkoudian.

Wilson said he still has “fleeting” hope that the project can continue, and that Trump’s plans to shut it down are ripe for a lawsuit because of the jurisdiction of the court Trump’s attorneys filed in, the existing contracts and money poured in by investors.

“I’ll say lastly that, yeah, this administration too shall pass,” Wilson added. “I don’t think Maryland is going to be sidetracked forever off of green energy.”

Republicans, on the other hand, are praising Trump for stepping in to stop the project.

Congressman Andy Harris, a Trump ally, the lone Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation and a representative of the Eastern Shore, said in a statement Tuesday that he commends the administration for “for stepping in, listening to our concerns, and taking the necessary steps to reevaluate this deeply flawed offshore wind project.”

“For years, I’ve stood with my local constituents, watermen, and elected officials in sounding the alarm about the serious environmental, economic, and national security risks posed by these massive, expensive and wasteful offshore wind projects that will drive up energy costs and make our electric grid even more unreliable,” said Harris. “US Wind’s approval in Maryland was rushed, lacked transparency, and completely ignored the voices of the people who actually live and work on the Eastern Shore.”

Del. Wayne Hartman, a Republican representing Worcester County, said the project went “full steam ahead with no regard for the impact it will have on our community.”

“This project threatened our tourism economy, our real estate values, and our commercial fishing industry. It threatened our marine life as a whole and specifically our horseshoe crab population, which is vital to the medical field,” said Hartman. “This project was even a threat to our national security. We have been fortunate to have the support of Congressman Harris along the way, and it is a relief to finally have a federal administration that is listening.”

State Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, another Republican representing Worcester County, wrote in a text to The Sun that she, as a part of the Stop Offshore Wind movement, is “grateful” that the Trump administration has listened, adding that she and others have been “making the case” since 2017 that industrialization off of Maryland’s coast would harm the environment and “drive up costs with an unreliable energy source.”

“The decision to move toward revoking US Wind’s federal permit is good news but we won’t stop fighting until the Maryland offshore wind project is completely dead,” said Carozza.

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