It’s not every day that it’s the Atlantic Ocean beach resort dispatching the sharks, but that’s essentially what’s happening in Ocean City where town leaders have hired a Washington, D.C.-based law firm to attack federal authorities. In a lawsuit filed late last week, those attorneys are baring their teeth to go after the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s recent decision to approve U.S. Wind’s plan to install offshore wind turbines, a project badly needed if Maryland is to meet its clean energy goals. And, in a curious twist, they’ve brought on board some high-profile co-plaintiffs ranging from the owner of Thrasher’s French Fries to the company that operates the popular White Marlin Open fishing tournament.

Mayor Rick Meehan and others have long portrayed a potential wind farm as a harpoon to the heart of the tourist trade — even as the closest turbine would be at least 11 miles offshore which is two miles longer than the full length of Coastal Highway from the Delaware state line to the inlet. The over-the-top reaction has focused primarily on the “view shed” with the assumption that year-round residents and seasonal visitors alike will be appalled by the windmills on the horizon (with blinking lights that turn on when aircraft are detected nearby). That’s not been the case at Rhode Island’s eight-year-old Block Island Wind Farm, the nation’s first such project, which is less than three miles from the beach but, oh, well.

Granted, proposed offshore wind farms have proven controversial elsewhere, too. This has resulted in a lot of foot-dragging on such projects that has so far thwarted what had been a major Biden administration effort to combat climate change. One would think, especially after the recent damage inflicted by hurricanes in North Carolina and elsewhere through the Southeast, that worsening weather might be of greater concern to those living on what is essentially a sand spit that is particularly vulnerable to rising tides. But then greenhouse gas emissions, whether from burning fossil fuels in cars or power plants, can always be construed as someone else’s problem.

We think Ocean City’s opposition is overwrought, but perhaps we’re a bit swayed by the thousands of well-paying union jobs associated with wind power including at Sparrows Point on top of meeting green energy goals. Others obviously sense blood in the water.