Blowing with the wind on energy policy

That’s the best way to understand the governor’s puzzling move to ban electric-generating windmill farms in state forests in far Western Maryland. It was a strong signal O’Malley intends to continue his two-faced energy approach premised on the notion that somehow this state can slide through a long period of electrical brownouts without having to take unpopular steps.

Some might see O’Malley’s rejection of wind turbines as inconsistent with his goal of developing non-polluting power supplies. After all, didn’t the governor push for enactment of a bill forcing power companies to generate 20 percent of their electricity from alternate sources by 2022? And isn’t wind power one of the cleanest sources around?

Those critics don’t understand the nuances of O’Malley’s politics.

Sure, the governor has barred windmills in state forests and parks. That’s good for Bambi and black bears. The ridges along mountainous terrain won’t be denuded to make way for 100 giant windmills.

Why should Maryland put up with aesthetically unappealing windmills, anyway? Let’s keep these 400 acres (out of 65,000 acres in those two state-protected forests) free of tainted devices that would ruin Western Maryland’s way of life.

Besides, O’Malley is all for windmill power — but it has to be on private land or on state government property (excluding state forests). That’s what he said.

However, once furious lobbying begins against windmill farms on such sites there’s a good chance the governor once again will knuckle under and favor the protesters. He doesn’t want to make them — or the environmental community — unhappy.

Yet experts say Marylanders could face rolling brownouts and blackouts in just three years. Voluntary energy conservation can’t close the electric gap. Maryland lacks sufficient in-state power sources to provide for its growing population. Those windmills would have come in quite handy.

Instead, windmills have become persona non grata in Maryland forests. They’re OK just down the road in Davis, W.Va., or in neighboring Pennsylvania and in 32 other states that have wind farms. Just not in Maryland.

Given O’Malley’s rejection of mountaintop windmills, imagine how he’ll react when environmentalists put up a stink over huge windmills off the coast of Ocean City. New Jersey and Delaware already are encouraging bidders seeking offshore wind production facilities.

How will the governor react when activists protest construction of high-voltage regional power lines that mar local vistas? How will O’Malley respond to environmentalist protests against a natural gas pipeline under the Chesapeake Bay to the Eastern Shore?

And how will he finesse environmentalist opposition to a new nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs?

To date, O’Malley’s energy policy has been marked by one consistent theme — inconsistency.

He spent two years beating the daylights out of Constellation Energy as 21st century robber barons and then capitulated to Constellation in an agreement that makes the governor, for the moment at any rate, a fan of nuclear power.

He railed against traditional, polluting power sources and demanded Maryland turn to alternate sources, until it became convenient to ban non-polluting windmills in state forests.

He presented a tough energy conservation bill that might have required major lifestyle changes by industries and consumers, until resistance grew to the point he accepted a greatly diluted bill.

He supported one of the nation’s most sweeping carbon-reduction bills but then accepted weakening amendments that led to the bill’s demise.

Left unanswered is O’Malley’s solution to Maryland’s growing energy shortage. How does he intend to address this future crisis?

Is he permanently in the nuclear power camp or is this a temporary stop until environmentalists persuade him to alter his position?

Will he back conservation mandates that force people to conserve even if they don’t want to?

Will he require solar panels in all new construction in Maryland?

Will he support natural gas drilling to exploit the highly promising Marcellus shale formation beneath western Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, eastern Ohio and West Virginia?

Will he abandon his carbon-emitting State Police SUV for a zero-polluting vehicle?

And will he champion such essential steps as additional gas-fired electric plants, new transmission lines to ease delivery bottlenecks and incentives to encourage energy companies to look favorably on Maryland?

We’ve got lots of unresolved questions and few answers from our governor. The problem won’t disappear, either. Whether we’re ready or not, Maryland’s energy crisis is coming. It’s only a matter of time.

Barry Rascovar is a longtime political columnist and a communications consultant in the Baltimore area. His address is brascovar@hotmail.com.