At the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, local officials have posted a sign: “SAVE THE OCEAN. STOP THE TURBINES.” It’s not subtle. And while it’s possible that some passersby will have no idea what those “TURBINES” are about or how they threaten the ocean, it’s clear everyone in elected office sure does. Their anger is directed at the proposed US Wind offshore wind farm more than 10 miles offshore. Last week, the Maryland Department of the Environment approved an air quality permit for the project, the last major hurdle, at least on the state level, for as many as 114 turbines to be built off the Maryland and Delaware coast generating enough electricity to power 718,000 homes.

One might think that clean energy would be especially appealing to a community that stakes its livelihood on sand and surf and where rising sea levels pose an especially grave danger. But, no, not at all. Elected officials are universally up in arms including their condemnation of the MDE permit. A “poorly conceived and potentially disastrous offshore wind project” was how Mayor Richard W. Meehan described it, adding that the resort town and its economy “will be significantly impacted if hundreds of these giant eyesores are constructed 10 miles from our beaches.”

Meehan and others have a laundry list of objections including concerns over the impact to wildlife (a claim that’s not especially well supported by research) but his use of the term “eyesore” is telling. What he and many others in Ocean City worry about is what they have called the “viewshed,” how the tall windmills will look from the beach. Their chief concern is that they will depress property values. Their theory is that visitors will be turned off by their presence even if the closest they come is roughly the distance between Catonsville and Pikesville.

“As more and more Marylanders learn the true costs and negative impacts of the industrialization of our ocean, the Stop Offshore Wind movement continues to grow each day,” writes State Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, an Ocean City native. And while it’s fair to be concerned about some aspects of the project’s development — how to properly dispose of used turbine blades made of fiberglass and epoxy resin, for example — it’s not as if Senator Carozza and other opponents are seeking to limit far-worse-polluting coal-powered generating plants or even to promote energy efficiency. They just don’t like the looks of wind turbines, distant or not.

But even that opposition is not well supported by experience. The presence of offshore wind turbines has not proved to be a drag on land values in places like the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island or the Nysted and Rønland wind farms off the coast of Denmark — and all of these existing turbines are located closer to land than the Ocean City project. Indeed, taking a tour boat out to see the Block Island turbines up close is a popular tourist activity. And since when has Ocean City become overly concerned about appearances? This is, after all, a town that’s not exactly been strict on developers or business owners. The Ocean City Council has only recently been considering an ordinance restricting boardwalk sales of T-shirts and other goods with sexually explicit images or vulgar and profane messages.

We appreciate how Ocean City’s residents feel like their concerns haven’t been heard. That’s not an uncommon response in the rural parts of Maryland. And it probably doesn’t help that President Donald Trump is a vocal opponent of wind energy — on land or water. Whether his opposition will stop the US Wind project remains unclear, as the project was approved by the U.S. Department of Interior when President Joe Biden was still in office last fall. But even on the politically conservative Eastern Shore, a February poll by Gonzales Research found a majority favor offshore wind and moving away from fossil fuels.

Given all that, it’s about time OC leaders heard from Marylanders who support clean energy and recognize that going green is a selling point, not a turnoff, for vacationers. Perhaps visitors this summer might even drop a note to the City Council and tell them they’ve got windmills on their minds — and wouldn’t mind a little less coal-fired power plant-produced sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and heavy metals in their lungs.