October 31, 2022 — A local Maine Lobstering Union member expects to meet personally with President Joe Biden to ask him to prevent the destruction of Maine’s lobster industry.
Ginny Olsen, MLU’s political liaison, said she will ask President Biden to prevent federal agencies from imposing draconian whale-protection rules. The White House meeting hasn’t been scheduled yet, she said, but she is meeting virtually with representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on October 27.
“I’m throwing any Hail Mary I can think of,” Olsen said in a phone interview.
Getting the president’s attention
Olsen sent a letter last month to Biden saying NOAA is denying climate-change science that shows right whales moved out of the Gulf of Maine.
She further pointed out Biden has ordered federal agencies to review regulations issued during the Trump presidency to make sure they are in line with the science. In Executive Order 13990, Biden directed agencies to address those rules that don’t comply with his administration’s policies—which include listening to climate-change science and creating good-paying union jobs. NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service have ignored that order, Olsen wrote.
She said she was hoping to appease both environmentalists and lobster fishermen with that argument.
After the letter was sent, she said, “We were contacted for further information, which we provided.”
Something else may have gotten the White House’s attention—a letter and press release from Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat, calling out Biden for reneging on his campaign promise to save Maine’s lobster fishery.
“You cannot espouse being a president for working people while simultaneously overseeing the destruction of an entire blue-collar fishery and its community’s heritage and way of life,” wrote Golden in a letter dated October 5. He asked for a meeting with Maine’s congressional delegation and lobster industry representatives.