We'll see some offshore wind back and forth on Monday - the final day of the legislative session.
Republican state senators decided to delay the Bond Bill (the state's capital budget for new buildings, renovation, and other projects) until Monday, the final day of the session.
The caucus issued a vaguely worded statement about seeking full consideration of other legislation before approving the spending bill.
It turned out that their beef was with legislation that would void a Sussex County Council decision denying a routine approval of a properly zoned substation for the US Wind offshore project near the now-shuttered Indian River power plant .
The Bond Bill requires a three-fourths vote from both houses. The six GOP senators either voted no or did not vote.
The live blog from Spotlight Delaware summed up the protest that accompanied the senators' non-vote as "performative for Sussex County Republican voters."
I looked up the word performative and found it is derived from the more common word "performance." In other words, Republican senators want to let their constituents know the depth of their opposition to the bill and "government “overreach.”
The word performative also applies to the Sussex County Council zoning decision Members of the council who had lost their bid for another term rejected the application over what they stated was a threat to Sussex County from the wind farm.
It led the outgoing president of the council to warn that the vote sends a message tarnishes the business-friendly image of Sussex County.
And in a worst case situation, if the US Wind project does not become a reality, the substation site could be used if a small nuclear, wind or gas-fired generator was built on the site.
The current Sussex Council should have short-circuited the bill by approving the substation zoning, removing the threat of the Legislature reducing local control. As things stand, taxpayers will shoulder legal costs for an appeal by U.S. Wind.
Senators hope Democrats will drop the zoning measure and let the Bond Bill go through. Chances are dim that the approach will work and we could see a marathon session on Monday.
On another note, the live blog showed that a General Assembly controlled by Democrats has a pile of bills awaiting action. Why this persists is frustrating to the business community and others, given the six-month timeframe of the session.
Acting sooner on bills or not taking Friday off might prevent last-minute grandstanding and improve transparency.
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