Delaware Public Schools Need Practices and Policies That Produce Results

 By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

Can you Read this? Half the Kids in our schools cannot.

Delaware has always been proud to be first – the First State is our motto after all. But we are far from first in one area and have been losing ground to other states for two decades now in an important criteria – public education.

Delaware is now ranked 47th among all the states for the academic performance of our public-school students (who are not in a charter school, where students do significantly better).  17 of our public schools have fewer than 10% of the students attending who can read and do math at grade level.  The best public schools average only slightly above 50% for student performance.  While not all students can attend the charter schools, all of them deserve better.   

In vast contradiction to the low performance ratings, Delaware spends more, per student, than almost every other state. The cost is nearly one third of our state budget. But we are not getting a return on our “investment”.  Why the quotation marks? Because an investment would be made with an intentional and focused effort to adopt practices and policies that would actually produce results. 

There are good teachers, invested parents and deserving children who are being failed by a system that is bloated and ineffective.  If you view education as a system, then learning should be the product. Our schools are not producing learning. There is one significant reason why – our students cannot read. 

There is an old saying in the field of education – “In grades 1-3 you learn to read, and in grades 4-12 (and beyond), you read to learn.”  Simply put, our students can’t learn if they can’t read. And yet, simply by looking at the numbers, we are graduating students from our high schools who cannot read.  

Some states have figured that out and have adopted practices that have changed the lives and futures of their students.  Mississippi is recognized as a leader in this effort.  For several decades, Mississippi, probably our poorest state, was last or next to last among states in student performance.  The leadership there determined to change that and made teaching students to read a priority. But you might say, we have been “teaching students to read” for more than 50 years.  Yes, but they did something no one had done (at least system wide). They recognized there had to be an objective, and consequences, and passed a state law that if a child did not read at third grade level, they could not be promoted to fourth grade. A transformational change in the culture of education followed. Suddenly, every teacher, every parent and every child had a clear objective – one that could be measured, one that could be met. (For those few students who lacked the ability to achieve the goal, exceptions were made.) Suddenly, overnight, every kid in elementary school had an individual education plan – learn to read at third grade level.  Success or failure was clear and specific, and it worked! In 2024, Mississippi ranked 20 states higher than it had in the past.   

Our state political and education leadership have the information needed to make a difference in our children’s lives, but they are falling short.   In his last budget proposal as Governor, John Carney included $8 million for literacy specialists. These hires were to teach teachers the science of reading, that is, how to teach reading by phonics.  Governor Meyer has included the same expenditure in his budget proposal.  While it would be easy to be critical of the proposed expenditure, because clearly more money is not the answer, simply put, this proposal will not get the job done.  It may teach teachers to teach reading, but the difference between “teaching kids to read” and kids learning to read, as proven in Mississippi, is a clear and specific goal, an objective embraced by the school, the students, the community.   

Delaware can end this shameful failure to prepare our children for a successful future.  We need only to adopt the practice Mississippi, Louisiana and other states have shown work. The General Assembly should pass a law that requires our third graders to read at third grade level or not pass on to fourth grade, and the Governor should support and sign it.  

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

DELAWARE’S GENERAL ASSEMBLY IS NOT CONSUMER FRIENDLY

 By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

Recently Delaware legislators have been saying things like “we need to hold the power companies accountable to their customers “, or “we need to hold hospitals accountable for the cost to their customers and the state “or “we need to hold teachers accountable for these students’ poor performance.” What we really need is to hold the legislature accountable.

Delaware’s public policies are costing Delawareans lots of money.  While the legislature is looking for someone else to blame, they need to look in the mirror.

Let’s take energy costs. Electricity costs have increased substantially in Delaware and particularly recently. Some have argued it was the cold weather in January, others that it was the electric grid operators’ fault, but the reality is our energy costs could be much cheaper.  Several issues increased cost and reduced supply.  First, we required the power companies to source huge and growing portions of electric power from renewable resources. Because Delaware does not generate very much power at all, including from renewable resources, the power companies had to go to other states and import the power. We lose part of the power in the course of the distance we transmit, and of course, the cost is more expensive than if we were to generate it ourselves. Then, the State shut down the power plant in Millsboro (which produced about as clean energy as any coal powered plant could) even earlier than planned and before they replaced, from other sources, the electricity that we lost from the shutdown. Finally, the electric car mandate is going to continue to create demand – it is scheduled to hit us hard in the next year or two.  Legislators also pushed for offshore wind, which costs between six and twelve times more, depending on who you talk to, than the cost of generating electricity on land. The bottom line is that our energy policy is not sound, rooted in common sense or consumer friendly.

Now let’s look at education. We spend, per pupil, in the top ten of all states. Education is nearly one third of the entire state budget. Yet we are ranked in the bottom three states based on student performance. And, while the issue did not arise during Covid, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard, a report of a collaboration between Harvard and Stanford universities, between 2019 and 2024, Delaware was 49th in the country in recovering Math performance by students to 2019 levels and 47th in the nation in Reading. Further, although between 2022 and 2024 we saw some recovery of math competency, reading scores did not reflect any recovery at all.  The former governor put $8 million into the budget for literacy specialists, and the current governor retained that expenditure, but we have increased spending for years, with decreasing student performance.  There are states that have changed lives by changing their policies with regard to reading. In Mississippi, which was 49th or 50th (until we replaced them), they passed a law that you had to read at third grade level to go to fourth grade. They are now 21st in the nation because their children can read. You can’t learn if you can’t read.  The answer is not more money (we spend as much per student as Massachusetts, which ranks first in the country) – the answer is changing what we are doing, how we define our goals, setting specific objectives. There are good teachers, good parents, and good kids out there who are not getting the support they need to achieve the results that they’re aiming for. The legislature could change the world for those students.  Implement the Mississippi plan.

As related above, the legislature has said they want to hold utility companies accountable to their customers by restricting their ability to raise rates. This is much like what they are now doing with hospital facilities. They have established a politically appointed governing authority to review hospital budgets, and to exercise authority to direct or curtail spending as that body determines.  While the legislators claim that they want medical healthcare in Delaware to be accessible, available and affordable, current policies achieve none of those objectives.  What will accomplish it is more competition. The legislature should remove the certificate of need 9now called the Certificate of Public Need). You may not realize it but there is actually a law in Delaware that says that you can’t add a new capability, such as a new technology, or build a new facility for healthcare in Delaware without permission of a group of people, again, politically appointed, most of whom are already in the business of providing healthcare. Study after study has shown that the accessibility to healthcare is restricted, and the cost of healthcare is increased, in states where this law is in effect.

The bottom line is this – the General Assembly is not serving Delaware citizens well. They are mandating that entities, other than themselves, exercise good judgment, prudence, and care in how they conduct their business, but have not shown the same restraint and responsibility and how they conduct theirs. We should adopt accountable objectives for teaching kids to read. You can’t learn if you can’t read. We should allow for competition in healthcare to expand the number of doctors and services that are available to Delaware citizens at a lower cost. And we should remove the mandates and restrictions that are causing our energy prices to be so high. The state has a ravenous appetite. We need to trim the legislature’s desire to spend our money without accountability and without regard to the real impact it has on real people living and doing business in Delaware.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

Delaware’s Healthcare Metrics: A Triple Medical Miss

By: C.D. Casscells, MD, Guest Contributor

Delaware is going broke over healthcare costs. About 1$ of every 4$ of the State budget is for healthcare. (Normal is 1/6). There is huge fraud in the State Medicaid system and the State Auditor was denied access to audit Health and Social Services which begs the question, “What are they hiding?” Delaware’s hospital costs are higher than the norm, and its quality outcomes are below average. Based on the higher hospital costs, health insurance costs more than in neighboring states. Many companies in Delaware self-insure to better manage their costs but are still subject to the high cost of hospitals in the state.

On the good side, Delaware does not have a shortage of Primary Care providers. There is generally pretty good access tchild birthing care statewide. Delaware specialty care is also good in Delaware.  Malpractice insurance rates are high but not unreasonable like Pa., where rural hospitals are closing in droves. After all, Delaware doesn’t have any rural hospitals. Basically, Delaware has only one hospital system in each county. And Delaware has only one health insurer, Highmark BCBSDe. There is no choice.

Also, the two largest employers purchasing insurance and healthcare in the state are the State itself and Christiana Care Health Systems. Delaware has very few skilled nursing facilities, the 3rd fewest in the nation, to serve our rapidly aging population. To exacerbate this, our best SNF’s have very few if any Medicaid beds, so the Medicaid and Obamacare patients are particularly underserved with very limited access to covered beds.

So, by the three classic metrics of Healthcare Policy, Cost, Quality, and Access, we aren’t doing so well. Why does this matter? Because employers do not want to move here if there is a lousy healthcare environment, any more than they want a lousy school system, which we also have. We used to attract business with our business law and Chancery Court System, but that is no longer as attractive and other states are becoming more appealing. So, if we don’t make cars here anymore, where are the jobs? Well, they are here taking care of retirees from other states like NY, PA, NJ, and MD. where taxes are too high. But will they still want to retire here if healthcare isn’t that good? Our in-migration of retirees with out-of- state pensions and health insurance may be at risk. There goes a cash cow.

What to do? Well, we would all like lower health insurance cost. So, we need more choices to compete. But Health insurers won’t come to Delaware because hospital costs are too high and there is no choice or competition. So, a health insurer cannot make money in this high hospital cost market. Quite obviously the state needs more choices…. providers like hospitals, doctors, outpatient diagnostic and treatment facilities, and nursing homes. More choices mean competition for quality and price, as well as access. Both the private employers and the State need more choices for health insurance and healthcare delivery.

These undeniable economics cannot be fixed by top-down mandate or legislation, rather by removing barriers to entry into the state by the antiquated Certificate of Public Review or a failed office of Insurance Commissioner, or for that matter a newly formed hospital budget review committee. Price-fixing and mandating economics ALWAYS result in untoward unintended consequences. Remove the barriers to competition. Let the supply and demand mechanics do their magic and, by the way, please audit the corrupt and wasteful Medicaid system which is on track to bust Delaware’s budget.

Dr. Casscells is the Director of the Center for Health Policy at the Caesar Rodney Institute. 

Delaware Is In A Fight For Our Role As America’s Incorporation King. We Must Win

By: Ben duPont, Guest Contributor*

Many may not know it, but Delaware is on the verge of crisis.

Multiple major companies incorporated in our state, from The Trade Desk to Dropbox, have announced intentions to move elsewhere, with some, like The Trade Desk, already having left. Others, such as Meta, are on the verge.

For the better part of a century, Delaware has been the incorporation king — the obvious place to anchor your business thanks to our corporate-friendly tax laws, legal system, privacy protections and more. The result is more than $2 billion in annual revenue, more than one third of our state budget. A large corporation that leaves Delaware represents a loss of up to $250,000 in tax revenues per year.

If these losses continue, it will be painful. It will require Delaware to look at other funding sources, such as a sales tax or increases to the state’s personal income tax rates, or it could require cuts to government services. We can’t allow it.

My family has been in Delaware for generations. I want my kids and grandkids to benefit from a thriving state economy and strong government. For that to happen, we need to make changes and make them fast. I applaud our state leaders for doing exactly that.

Gov. Matt Meyer, Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay, and Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez are all former business lawyers, and Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend is a business lawyer. These leaders did what any company does: They listened to the customers. Within 30 days of the governor entering office, they put forth proposals to solve the problem with Senate Bill 21.

So will Senate Bill 21 do?

So what is that problem, exactly? First let me tell you what it isn’t. Delaware is still the best state in the country to incorporate a business, bar none. A major reason is our excellent court system, where disputes are decided by judges with extensive experience in corporate law. These judges have been the gold standard of fairness and justice for over 100 years and still are.

The bill before the General Assembly helps our judges and companies by providing greater clarity around what it means to be a controlling stockholder and an independent director. It will ensure more predictable outcomes in disputes. It also draws clearer lines around stockholders’ entitlement to examine books and records, thus limiting lawsuits that are often costly for companies. In recent years, Delaware has been descended upon by plaintiffs’ attorneys and class action firms looking to make a buck off of frivolous lawsuits. This is a cancer on our system, and Senate Bill 21 will cut it out.

By providing clarity and predictability, the legislation will help assuage the concerns of businesses. I know because I run a business myself and work with many large multinational companies. They love our state, but the truth is that they have options. Delaware is no longer a monopoly. Other states such as Texas and Nevada are actively trying to lure them away from us.

Other states want to dethrone Delaware

In fact, on March 5, Texas’s Gov. Greg Abbott, published an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, “Forget Delaware – ‘Y’ all Street’ Is Open for Business” which states, “Businesses domiciled in Delaware have a choice to make. They can stay [in Delaware] and be subjected to increasingly unpredictable theories of liability. Or, like Americans before them, they can come to Texas. Unlike Delaware, the Lone Star State is open for business.”

The message from Abbott is clear: Delaware needs to compete for the corporation business.

It’s no wonder these states want a piece of the action. Our incorporation industry is brilliant for how it brings in revenue without causing resource strain. In virtually every other state, the leading industry brings money but also huge numbers of people that place strain on the schools, infrastructure, and government services that the industry helps to fund. We get the benefits for our existing residents without many of the costs.

I am both a Delawarean and a client of our incorporation system. I have looked at both sides of the debate and have heard from those who say the proposed changes will disadvantage minority stockholders and risk financial ruin for Delawareans. Only one side makes sense. This bill won’t “rebalance” the system by tipping the scales in any direction; it will simply stabilize the balance that has long existed. Its intent is to clarify rather than change, and that’s exactly what we need.  With Senate Bill 21’s adoption, corporations and their shareholders will want to be in Delaware, as they have for more than 100 years, bringing continued revenue to the state, and maintaining a legal industry that supports the state’s economy with jobs and ancillary businesses.

We can’t afford to get distracted by headlines and polarizing figures on either side of this conversation. This isn’t about any one person or business; it is about preserving the future of our state for the sake of our kids and grandkids. It is about defending our crown as the incorporation king. Long live.

Ben duPont is a long-term Delawarean, a venture capitalist and a philanthropist.

*This article was originally published in the Delaware News Journal, March 7, 2025.

A Closer Look at Delaware’s Education Budget: Challenges and Solutions

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

It’s a popular argument that education funding in Delaware is “broken.” Our average annual spending per student is among the highest in the country while our student performance is well at the bottom. The data are scattered and not in a readily comparable format, but there is a bill in the General Assembly to make the information more accessible on the Department of Education’s website. We also need to be more transparent about the actual money spent and where it is going.

For those who claim that funding is not going to the neediest students, in terms of learning performance, that is not true. According to the Delaware Department of Education website, spending per pupil in Delaware, on average, is a little over $21,000.00. But, as the Caesar Rodney Institute has published, in some of the schools with the weakest student performance, the expenditure is over $30,000.00 per student. We are moving money to the students assessed to need more instruction. But we do them no service if we do not produce results for them and their futures.

Teachers, educational support service workers and administrators do not come to work in the morning looking to create inefficiencies or cause poor student performance. It is not the goodwill or the effort of teachers, parents and students that is lacking. It is a lack of leadership and of specific objectives and outputs that is hampering results.

We suffer from a teacher shortage. That may be, in part, as a result of our pay scale, as many in state government seem to think.  But an overriding issue relates to discipline and safety.  When asked by their union, of all the issues teachers have identified as concerning and affecting their ability to teach, those two concerns are among the most significant cited.  We need to address the policies that displace entire classes when one student acts out, and which have resulted in physical altercations, not only between students, but also between students and teachers and other staff.

Heritage Foundation did a study which measured aspects of education and policy in all 50 states. Once again, Delaware ranked in the bottom (47) overall. But Heritage also evaluated “teacher freedom” – the ability to move into and around within the Delaware teaching community.  Delaware ranked dead last, at 51 (the District of Columbia was included).  Heritage suggested Delaware consider adopting policy changes that allow teachers alternative routes into the classroom (other than university degrees in education), expanding reciprocity of teacher licenses between states and reducing obstacles to qualification to teach in Delaware, giving the hiring of teaching staff over non-teaching staff priority and making the decision to revise or eliminate our alignment with the Common Core standards.  All of these actions can help alleviate the teacher shortage and improve teacher morale, and do not cost a lot of money. Some cost none.

That is important because public education funding makes up a third of Delaware’s state operating budget and is now the largest spending category for the First State, totaling 36% of operating appropriations at over $2 billion.

The Delaware Department of Education was awarded $2.16 billion for the current fiscal year and is now requesting additional funds of nearly $200 million, largely to support personnel salaries, enrollment growth and positions for school mental health professionals. Yet, a recent Pew study suggested that we are going to see student enrollment go down, and indeed, there are ample examples of near-empty schools and classrooms in our current facilities.

There is a new interest in government spending spreading across the country.  Citizens are making unprecedented inquiries into how much of their money the government is spending and what the government is spending it on. Given the low rate of return on our consistent high spending on education with very poor student performance results, everyone, not just parents of children in school, but every taxpayer, should demand that the state adopt policies that will improve education outputs, not just throw more money at the problem.

Candidly, it is hard to say no to giving more money to try and help our children gain the skills they need to succeed. Political pressures are significant. So, get involved! Let your legislator know that you will support them if they insist on better policies, not more money.  Advocate for more parental authority over education choice, better flexibility for educators to teach in Delaware, and objectives and targets that reflect real effort to reach specific goals in student performance.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

Addressing Delaware’s Energy Costs: A Call for Common Sense Solutions

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

Sometimes, when you are looking for a reason for your woes, you should look in the mirror.

That is the advice the General Assembly should take to heart.  Recently, there has been a lot of citizen anger, so there has been a lot of political concern about the cost of electricity.  As a result, politicians are trying to “do something about it.”  Several pieces of legislation have been introduced to address the issue, and hearings have been held.  Their efforts, not entirely, but for the most part, have been misguided.

First, legislators are calling for more scrutiny of the energy providers spending priorities and pricing, but not of the impact of policy decisions that affect both pricing and availability. They are proposing to put a limit on capital expenses by power companies (read bringing new and better technology online) but have not looked at the impact of their legislation on the cost of acquiring energy from out of state, rather than generating it within our own boundaries.

Why are prices up? There are several causes. One is the weather. Like it or not, the records show that the demand for power in January 2025 was levels not seen for 25 years. More usage equals higher prices.  But that was an episodic event, and there are other impacts built into our state energy policies that have even greater effect.

Most significantly, the decision to eliminate sources of energy before they are able to be replaced has an impact.  Delaware already imports more energy than it generates.   But we have taken the Indian River power plant offline (shut it down) before we have developed the capacity to replace the energy it was providing. Significant, regional shortfalls are expected over the next 10 years and are expected to increase.  Legislative policies requiring energy from renewable sources (wind, solar), in ever-increasing percentages of total energy provided by the electric companies, are going to create increased prices because renewable energy generation is not keeping pace with previous levels of energy generation prior to the retirement of sources like Indian River power plant.
We are giving up supply before we replace it.

Delaware is not alone in this regard. Many of our surrounding states are adopting the same, short-sighted policies without regard to how consumers are affected.   It only takes a little common sense to be able to understand that the less energy, the higher the cost.

Not only are we giving up sources of power before other resources become available, but we are also choosing power generation sources that are extremely more expensive and less reliable.

Although immediate costs of both onshore and offshore wind have decreased in recent estimated projects, that is because the turbines being built are larger, and farther offshore. But, as an article in the Harvard Business Review acknowledged, “the most significant cost escalation is likely to occur in decommissioning… involving the disassembly of turbines, removal of foundations and cables…” Historically, these costs and their impact on consumers have been given little attention, but as turbines age, the costs of turbine maintenances increase, and the full cost of decommissioning is identified, regulators and providers will be required to address the issue.

Legislation is also being considered that would make it easier for regulators to disallow costs requested by power companies in a rate case.  Already highly regulated, this would impose a political consideration into a business decision – a practice of which we at A Better Delaware have been consistently critical.

Delaware has access to resources to help consumers who cannot afford the increased prices pay for power. That money is part of a cap-and-trade program for energy efficiency and consumer benefits.        It is not an insignificant sum. It has been reported that in 2019, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources received $217 million from the program.  Now, some legislators have proposed that the money in that program be returned to low-income families who are struggling to meet their energy bills.

Finally, some legislators have expressed interest in changing the mandates, passed several years ago, that set increasingly strict mandates for the percentage of power that must come from renewable resources.  In that same, prior law, a cost cap protection that would have prevented excessive rate hikes was repealed, a subtle acknowledgement that the costs of renewables is greater than the cost of then-existing energy sources. Whether those steps will be taken remains to be seen.

We need to protect access to affordable energy sources until cost effective alternatives are available and allow the power companies to make decisions that will maximize their ability to meet consumer demand in a cost-effective and responsible manner. Our current policies do not allow for either. If the General Assembly wants to respond to citizens’ concerns with common sense solutions, they need to look in the mirror, identify the problem, and work to correct our policies and laws to the benefit of Delawareans.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

Navigating Fiscal Challenges In Delaware: Insights from the FY 26 State Budget Hearings

By: State Representative, Kevin S. Hensley, Guest Contributor

This year’s hearings on the FY 26 state budget have been interesting thus far.  We’ve had brand new cabinet secretaries presenting their department’s priorities, having been on the job for less than thirty days.  Furthermore, the Governors Recommended Budget (GRB) which is being considered is actually the budget put forth by former Governor Carney on his last day of office in January.  We’ve been told that Governor Meyer will be performing a budget “reset” in March – no one seems to know at this time how this will affect what we’ve been working on during this month of February.

In the budget overview, OMB Director Maxwell informed us that the proposed budget represents a 6.9% increase over the FY 25 budget.  Please note that the prior two years budgets have seen growth by just under 10% each year.  I have suggested since my time on the Joint Finance Committee that this amount of growth would not be sustainable and that we ought to be looking at how to keep spending under control.

Unfortunately, it seems that I’ve been right after all . . . it is currently projected that at this rate, we will be running a 325 million deficit in FY 27 and a 143 million deficit in FY 28.  The Administration has proposed that we raid the budget stabilization account (one of our two state savings accounts) to cover the shortfall.  This in essence would completely deplete this account.   I do not agree that this is the proper approach.  Instead, we should be looking at the number of vacant positions in state government of three years or more and move to eliminate some or all of them from the operating budget.  My feeling is if they’ve not been filled at this point, and the agency seems to be operating fine without them, that we remove them from the books.

Our budget challenges in part are related to the increased cost of those programs we are obligated to fund (often referred to as “door openers”).  These include an $85 million increase in the Medicaid program for FY 26.  While the number of participants in the program has dropped from about 310,000 Delawareans to 290,000 currently, the cost of services has increased.  Other programs include $26 million additional to cover just enrollment growth in our public schools throughout the state and $81 million to cover increases in teachers salaries.

In addition to the State’s operating budget, there are two additional pots of money – the Bond fund to cover the costs of infrastructure projects and the Grant In Aid budget to subsidize the work of hundreds of non-profits throughout the State.  I have long been advocating to increase this allocation which has been fairly flat over the past several years.  These organizations do great work for some of the State’s most vulnerable population and are critical in addressing the needs of thousands of Delawareans.

Please stay tuned as we continue to work through the budget and don’t be shy about weighing in with your thoughts to your State Senator or Representative.

State Representative Kevin Hensley, elected to the House of Representatives in 2014, represents the 9th District, which includes the Odessa, Townsend, and Port Penn areas in Delaware. Kevin is an Associate Broker with RE/MAX Premier Properties, a Founding Member of the MOT Charter School, and an advocate for nonprofit organizations that support members of the IDD community, including Easterseals and Ability Network of Delaware.

Think Your Electric Bill Was High? Here’s What’s Coming

By: David T. Stevenson, Guest Editor

Sorry about those high electric bills, but nothing has really changed in the last few months except the weather. Higher costs have been sneaking up for decades and wait till you see what’s coming next.

In 2008 legislation, and more recent amendments, passed mandating ever-growing requirements for wind and solar power, and creating a carbon tax on in state power plants.  Because of efforts like ours you can see the costs as line items on your electric bills if you are a Delmarva Power customer. Add up the line items for the Green Energy Fund, the Qualified Fuel Cells, the Renewable Power Compliance Charge, and Energy Efficiency Charge and you will see that they are adding about 10% to your electric bill, or about $170 a year on an average bill. Those charges will continue creeping up and could double without a mandate for offshore wind. If Delmarva is forced to buy offshore wind your electric bill could rise an additional average of $200 a year over twenty years.

Because Delmarva buys power on long term contracts you can’t see the carbon tax cost. Two years ago, the cost was transparent on Virginia electric bills and added $75 a year, and the regional tax increased about three-fold since then and could be about $200 a year now.  Taken together your green energy bill could rise to $600 a year just for wind, solar and carbon taxes.

However, there’s more. Delaware’s Climate Action Plan foresees mandates to force all home heating and hot water systems to be fueled by electricity which cost more than propane or natural gas. We already have a mandate to eventually force you to drive an electric vehicle probably charged at home. All that extra electric demand will have to be met with unreliable wind and solar power so a study will be ordered this year to possibly mandate back up storage batteries costing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. Utility scale wind and solar projects are usually located far from existing power transmission and distribution lines so billions of dollars will be invested in that infrastructure.

A recent study completed for the New England states surmised a similar plan could double electric rates. The average Delaware residential electric bill is about $1680 a year now. Ready to pay $1680 more? Perhaps these recent high electric bills will wake folks up to the slow boil before they get cooked. In future elections make sure you know what energy policies your candidates support. We can have clean, reliable, affordable power for a lot less than these so-called green policies.

David T. Stevenson has spent the last twelve years as the Director of the Center for Energy & Environment for the Caesar Rodney Institute.  He is also currently leading the national effort opposing offshore wind through the American Coalition for Ocean Protection and the Ocean Environment Legal Defense Fund, promoting advanced nuclear power development.

More Transparency And Accountability is Needed: Delawareans Deserve to Know What Their Government Is Doing

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

Delaware is a small community, even if it is a state. To say “everyone knows everyone” is mostly true, and in that kind of business and political climate, there is a tendency to get things done through those relationships, not necessarily according to the laws and regulations of the State.

There are some checks and balances, that are respected, but the way Delaware government has done business is, as a practical matter, informal.

A Better Delaware has called for more accountability and transparency in Delaware’s governing practices on a consistent basis.  The Center for Public Integrity rates Delaware 48^th in the nation with regard to those factors, giving us a failing grade in ethics enforcement and our Freedom of Information laws.

Recent events have highlighted why we need to improve.  Legislators have been arrested for criminal offenses, there was an embezzlement from the Unemployment Insurance Fund that was not disclosed for approximately six months and questions about both the “double-dipping” of legislators also holding state employment positions as well as where grant funds, in particular to address the opioid crisis, went.  These events have apparently not gone unnoticed.

Newly elected Governor Matt Meyer seems to be addressing some of the issues.  He has promised to require ethics training for all state employees. He has further stated that any misappropriation of tax dollars would be identified to the public within 90 days.  He directed all the state agencies to review the past four years of “audit findings” within the next three months.  Presumably, that means the agencies will conduct those audits, as that is not an annual practice of any state agency. Further, you may recall that, last year, one fund within the Department of Labor was actually deemed “unauditable” by the state Auditor’s office. Regular and consistent attention to the accounting of how and where your tax dollars are being spent is information every Delawarean deserves.

And speaking of the Auditor’s office, pending legislation would give the Delaware Auditor of Accounts the authority to issue subpoenas directly, removing a requirement to go through the courts. This proposal would expedite the review of agency finances, as well as allow more flexibility to respond to emerging situations. It is a welcome change. You may recall the difficulty a previous Auditor had in getting cooperation from state agencies and the legislature.

It is not just where your money is going that should concern you. How effectively it is being spent is also important. Each year, the Department of Education publishes data regarding all Delaware public schools, currently known as School Performance Data Reports. These reports are known as the Delaware Report Card., and have, historically, been difficult to find on the Department’s website. Legislation now pending would require the Department to provide a link to these reports on the home page of the Department’s website, as well as better identify all education-related data to reflect the broad range of data that the Department publishes, in addition to the annual reports required under existing State and federal law. Many parents do not know how well the school their child attends is teaching, so there is real learning.  Shamefully, there are more than a dozen schools in Delaware where the proficiency of students in Math and English is below 10%. That means fewer than 10 of every hundred students in that school are reading or doing math at grade level.  Knowing where your child’s school stands can be important information as more and more options become available for parents to choose where to send their child to school.  No child’s chances of success should depend on the zip code in which their family can afford to live.

Finally, government does not always act with the proper intentions or in accord with the will of the people. We should know what is motivating our leaders when they make choices significant numbers of us oppose. The EV mandate is one. Why are the leaders committed to forcing us to buy the kind of car they choose? Why are they intentionally working to eliminate gas powered cars completely? And why are they doing it, not only when it is so universally opposed, but when the costs, range, safety and ability to charge these vehicles are prohibitive to many?

Similarly, why are our leaders willing to sign agreements to take money from a wind farm company in exchange for access to our shores when the electricity will not go to Delaware customers, no jobs are created for Delaware businesses and such an agreement imposes all the risks to the environment on Delaware citizens, and in particular, Sussex County’s residents and natural resources?

Answers to questions such as this may come from an independent and impartial review by an Inspector General, someone who has no political or financial interest in the answers to these questions, and who is obligated to provide the public or members of the General Assembly the answers.  Legislation should be passed to establish the Office of Inspector General in Delaware.

As citizens, as taxpayers, as residents, we all are owed the duty of responsiveness and fidelity to the laws and oath of office from our elected and appointed officials.  Assuring that we are informed and that where and how our money is being spent is accurately reported is a core duty of our government. We seem to be making some small steps in the right direction.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

Bloom Energy: Time To Go

By: Dr. David R. Legates, Advisory Board Member, A Better Delaware

Bloom Energy’s founder, K.R. Sridhar, recently appeared on Maria Bartiromo’s show on Fox Business.  He touted Bloom Energy as a viable solution to President Trump’s declaration of a national energy emergency.  But as we approach the thirteenth anniversary of Delaware’s investment in Bloom Energy, it is time for the Meyer Administration to pull the plug on this energy debacle.

Under the Markell Administration, then DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara engineered a sweetheart deal with Bloom Energy of San Jose, California—the same city for which O’Mara was the clean tech strategist.

The deal O’Mara struck with Bloom Energy was very favorable to the upstart energy company.  The University of Delaware would build a 240,000 ft² manufacturing facility on their STAR campus and Bloom Energy would occupy the building for twenty-five years at a rent of $1 per year.  Moreover, Bloom Energy would receive more than $30M in grants from the State and a surcharge guarantee that would last for twenty-one years.

In exchange, Bloom Energy was to have spent at least $50M in the development of six other buildings to encourage like businesses to locate in the University’s STAR campus.  To date, none of this has occurred.  They also were to have employed 900 workers by September 30, 2016, or as Governor Markell said, “it will bring an estimated 1,500 manufacturing, supply chain and construction jobs to the region”—to date, Bloom Energy still has not employed even 800 workers.  Note too that this sweetheart deal was spurred, in part, by the loss of more than 6,000 jobs due to the closure of the Boxwood Road and Newark Automobile facilities.

To pay for this, Delmarva Power ratepayers’ foot the bill by the addition of a “Qualified Fuel Cells Renewable Compliance Charge” on the delivery charge, not the supply charge, of their monthly electric bill.  To date, ratepayers have shelled out more than $405 million to Bloom Energy.  Adding what state and federal taxpayers have funneled to Bloom Energy as subsidies, the grand total of the Bloom Energy giveaway so far is more than $580 million.

Bloom Energy argued that their fuel cells are renewable energy and Governor Markell said that the surcharge was necessary to achieve the State’s goal of having 25% of its energy come from renewable energy by 2025 and 40% by 2035.  The Institute for Energy Research in Washington DC noted that rate-payer subsidies to a private energy business is “unusual.”  “This is a serious sweetheart deal,” the IER vice-president of policy said.

Asserting that it is green energy, the State of Delaware leveraged funds from the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act (REPSA) by “allowing energy output from Delaware-manufactured [Bloom Energy] fuel cells to be considered a resource eligible to fulfill a portion of the REPSA [requirements].”

But Bloom Energy’s fuel cells are neither clean nor green.  They utilize natural gas in their production of energy, just as a combined-cycle natural gas power plant does; although it is cheaper to build a natural gas power plant and the energy produced by it is much cheaper than what ratepayers are charged for Bloom’s electrons.  In 2021, electricity from Bloom Energy’s fuel cells cost 5½ times more than electricity generated by a natural gas power plant.  Moreover, a study conducted at the University of Delaware concluded that Bloom Energy “overstated the efficiency of its fuel cells by as much as 20% in public disclosures.”

Remember that in July of 2014, the Data Center project was rejected owing to its requirement for a natural gas plant to be constructed at the STAR campus.  As the University stated, “Given the University’s commitment to reduced carbon emissions, and its strong reputation in renewable and carbon-free energy research, the emplacement of a fossil-fuel based facility of this size does not appear consistent with UD’s vision of a first class science and technology campus.”  An odd reason given that at the STAR campus, Bloom Energy was already producing natural-gas-based fuel cells that are less efficient and generate more carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour than the proposed natural gas plant.

And yes, since Bloom Energy’s fuel cells utilize natural gas as a fuel source, carbon dioxide is produced as a by-product.  While Bloom Energy contends that their fuel cells emit only 700 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour, after just two years of use, their fuel cells exceed 825 pounds.  Think about that…Delaware pretends that Bloom’s fuel cells are green, renewable energy when, in reality, they emit more carbon dioxide per megawatt hour than a combined cycle natural gas plant does.

Moreover, Bloom Energy’s fuel cells produce hazardous waste as a byproduct.  Natural gas contains dangerous elements and compounds, such as benzine, carbonyl sulfide, hydrogen sulfide, arsenic, lead, and chromium.  Delaware does not track the transport of these compounds to hazardous waste facilities although manifests have been discovered that indicate Bloom Energy indeed ships this hazardous waste from its Newark facility to Indiana.

In late 2020, the US EPA fined Bloom Energy $1.37M for mishandling hazardous materials originating in Delaware but the fine was kept secret.  Senator Murkowski of Alaska loaned her US Senate Energy Committee’s special counsel to Bloom Energy from 2018 until 2020 so he could minimize Bloom Energy’s fines to the EPA and assist Bloom Energy in hiding their hazardous waste in which O’Mara and DNREC were complicit.  Indeed, O’Mara gave testimony under oath to the Delaware Public Service Commission that Bloom Energy was clean energy when he knew that Bloom Energy generated hazardous materials and emitted more carbon dioxide than what they claimed in their marketing brochures and website.

In summary, rather than being efficient, green, and affordable, Bloom Energy fuel cells emit more pollution and the electricity they generate costs more than five times as much as a state-of-the-art natural gas plant.  Moreover, they are being used as part of the Delaware Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act (REPSA) even though they are based on natural gas—a fossil fuel.

Furthermore, Bloom Energy has lied about the hazardous waste produced by their fuel cells, and they continue to lie—aided by the State of Delaware—about how the hazardous waste is treated and to where it is shipped.  Shipping hazardous waste around the country without proper documentation is a fundamental health concern for first responders and citizens alike.

The Markell-O’Mara deal to bring Bloom Energy to Delaware has been a complete and utter disaster for all Delawareans and the ratepayers of Delmarva Power.  It’s time to pull the plug on this boondoggle that has plagued Delaware for more than a decade.

Dr. David R. Legates is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Delaware and is the Director of Research and Education at the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.  He also is an Advisory Board Member of A Better Delaware.