June 14, 2023 — Gov. Janet Mills and the state’s congressional delegation want federal officials to consider Maine’s lobster industry as the government weighs proposals for offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Maine.
Mills, Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, and Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree are asking the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to avoid areas used by the lobster industry and “minimize all potential conflicts” with the industry.
The bureau is eyeing commercial wind projects off the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, an area encompassing 9.8 million acres, about twice the area of New Jersey.