Ocean City challenges MD permit in two different venues

Ocean City is pursuing every avenue in its ongoing fight to block an offshore wind farm — including one that didn’t exist until a month ago.

That’s when the Environmental Protection Agency told the state it erred in saying appeals of the air quality permit it granted for the US Wind project could only be challenged in court. The proper venue is the agency’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB), the EPA said, ordering the state to rewrite its notice.

State officials refused and have challenged the EPA’s claim, as has US Wind, the developer behind the Ocean City project. Local environmental attorneys said the move appears to be an attempt by the Trump administration EPA to “figure out ways to undercut what the Biden administration did” by muddying the waters about how an appeal should proceed