PPH - Lawmakers hear competing offshore wind proposals

One bill lays out a detailed state path to promote floating offshore wind that will help Maine meet its climate goals and create jobs, while the other seeks to use the state's power to keep the industry out of the Gulf of Maine where fishermen earn their living.

BY PENELOPE OVERTON STAFF WRITER

Floating offshore wind continues to divide state lawmakers struggling to figure out if the burgeoning industry holds the answer to Maine’s climate and economic goals or if it poses an existential threat to the state’s $1.4 billion lobster industry.

Lawmakers heard impassioned testimony Thursday on two wind power bills that envision very different futures for Maine: one directs the state to use its power to shape projects that federal regulators can permit in offshore waters, and the other directs the state to try to derail the projects.

The pro-wind bill, L.D. 1895, directs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to conduct a competitive bidding process to procure 1,000 megawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 2,800 megawatts by 2035, enough to generate more than half of Maine’s electricity demand.

“This essentially starts the process,” Sen. Mark Lawrence, D-Eliot, the chairman of the energy committee and the bill’s sponsor, said of the procurement requirement. “It sends a strong signal to developers that Maine is serious about buying floating offshore wind.”

Fellow members of Lawrence’s energy committee such as Rep. Steven Foster, R-Dexter, questioned why Maine should advance offshore wind projects whose potentially high costs would be borne by ratepayers before it can assess the performance of a test site off Monhegan and a research array off Portland.

“Why this now, when we don’t actually have hard information from all of that to lean on?” Foster asked.

The Biden administration wants to deploy 15 gigawatts of floating wind turbines in U.S. waters by 2035, enough to power 5 million homes. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is eyeing about 9.7 million acres in the Gulf of Maine for potential offshore wind development..............................

................Lawrence’s bill directs the PUC to build the transmission infrastructure needed to “expeditiously” make use of offshore wind; set local hiring, workforce development and safety standards; promote diversity, equity and inclusion; and monitor the impacts on the marine environment........................

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The wind prohibition bill, L.D. 1884, was presented by first-term Rep. Tiffany Strout, R-Harrington. It prohibits towns and state agencies from authorizing the construction of offshore wind or issuing a lease or granting an easement that would benefit any offshore wind power project.

“When we talk about helping to slow the global warming process we need to think about all alternatives, not just the agenda of the day,” Strout said. “There are much better ways to proceed with the production of energy and cutting down on the use of fossil fuels besides completely destroying the Gulf of Maine.”

The above are excerpts. The full article is here:

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/05/18/lawmakers-hear-competing-off...

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