May 22, 2023 — On Thursday the Maine Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee held a public hearing on a proposal to pave the way for the development of offshore wind infrastructure in the Gulf of Maine, including the construction of a coastal manufacturing facility that would build the offshore floating wind turbines
Lawmakers also considered Thursday Rep. Tiffany Strout’s (R-Harrington) LD 1884, a bill that would block offshore wind developments.
In recent years, the prospect of filling the Gulf of Maine with hundreds of wind turbines has taken on an air of inevitability, with environmental groups, industry groups, and well-paid lobbyists pouring millions of dollars into political pressure campaigns and ad campaigns designed to build support for the project.
Unions, construction companies, investment companies, and lobbyists are all lining up to secure their share of what could be one of the largest taxpayer-funded projects in the history of the state.
Most of the activity during Thursday afternoon’s public hearing centered around LD 1895, a bill proposed by Sen. Mark Lawrence (D-York) that would expand offshore wind power in the Gulf of Maine.
The bill is cosponsored by nine Democratic State Senators and Representatives.
Sen. Lawrence’s bill would direct the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) to encourage the development of extraterritorial wind power projects in the Gulf of Maine, mandate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles for an offshore wind power port project, create environmental monitoring standards, and ensure that any port project use agreements favorable to labor unions.
LD 1895 also directs the MPUC to solicit contracts for wind power projects, with the first solicitation to happen no later than June 1, 2025, and each subsequent solicitation required to be within two years of the previous one.