U.S. Rep Jared Golden shreds Biden admin for green energy hypocrisy

Rep. Golden now needs to realize that there are green propagandists masquerading as "environmental groups" a lot closer to home than the Monterey Aquarium in California. He also needs to understand there is nothing good about wind power - offshore or onshore. I doubt he will, or he already knows this but is on a short leash from the higher ups.

March 21, 2023

By Thomas Catenacci | Fox News

EXCLUSIVE: Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden blasted the Biden administration for targeting his state's lobster industry with eco regulations while ignoring the environmental impacts of offshore wind projects.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Golden said the federal government has held Maine lobstermen to an unfair standard over their impacts on the endangered North Atlantic right whale species compared to how it has treated offshore wind developers and other ocean-based industries. He added the administration's actions were aimed at appeasing environmental groups that have similarly targeted lobstermen.

"The hypocrisy part is what pisses me off because we know that right whales, other whales, get struck by freight vessels all the time. Cruise ships that are out there carting people around hit them," he told Fox News Digital. "You see very little effort by the federal government to do anything."

"And yet they see a small business lobster fishery up in Maine that's not politically important to them and they try to crush it just to try to prove to the environmental groups that they're actively trying to protect the right whales," he continued.

In recent years, federal agencies have attempted to crack down on Maine's lobster fishery despite scant evidence of whale impacts. Lobster industry groups, though, have pointed to federal data which shows that there has never been a recorded right whale death caused by lobster fishing equipment in Maine and the last recorded whale entanglement in fishing gear came more than two decades ago.

Industry groups and lawmakers including Golden have also said the rules, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) first rolled out in May 2022 with more set for 2024 and 2030, would threaten thousands of blue-collar jobs. Maine's lobster industry — which by state law is made up entirely of small business operators — provides the U.S. with about 90% of the nation's lobster supply, making the industry a top economic driver in the state, and boosting other related industries as well.

At the same time, the government in recent months has repeatedly defended offshore wind projects in the face of an unprecedented uptick in whale deaths and widespread calls for a moratorium on offshore wind development until the deaths are further studied. More than 20 whale deaths have been recorded along the East Coast since December with most coming in New Jersey, New York and Virginia where large wind projects are under development.

"Am I concerned about hypocrisy in how the federal government deals with like the Maine lobster fishery, as opposed to big energy projects?" Golden continued. "The answer is 100% yes, because for four years now, I have been constantly harassing the federal government to show us one piece of evidence that Maine's lobster fishery is at all responsible for any kind of entanglement of whales let alone a death of a right whale."

"They can't show any field-gathered data," he said. "All they have are these computer-driven formulas that show risk even though it's been almost 20 years since there was a whale entanglement associated with the Maine lobster fishery. Despite the complete lack of any data they've tried to regulate that fishery nearly out of business."
Maine lobstermen haul in their latest catch off the state's coast.

Last week, Golden joined Reps. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Andy Harris, R-Md., in writing a letter to federal officials demanding more information about the risks offshore wind projects pose to marine wildlife. They noted that wind leases occupy more than 1.7 million acres of waters along the Atlantic coastline, a vast area that will become a large wind turbine construction zone over the next decade.

The letter also highlighted a 2022 internal memo from Sean Hayes, NOAA's chief of protected species, who stated that "oceanographic impacts from installed and operating turbines cannot be mitigated" and would particularly impact the dwindling right whale population.

"Offshore wind development and deployment stands to be a consequential national undertaking, which is why our approach should be done correctly the first time, with full consideration taken in order to mitigate negative impacts on marine species such as the North Atlantic right whale," the letter concluded.

In addition, Golden directed his ire at environmental groups that have maintained attacks on Maine's lobster industry. Last year, California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium — which has commitments from companies like Blue Apron, Cheesecake Factory, Hello Fresh and Whole Foods — downgraded Maine lobster from "good alternative" to "avoid," citing risks the state's fishery poses to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Continue reading at:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dem-congressman-shreds-biden-admin...

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Comment by Willem Post on March 21, 2023 at 6:16pm

THE ONLY WAY THIS ENDS IS AT THE BALLOT BOX

VOTE THE BASTARDS OUT

Comment by Willem Post on March 21, 2023 at 6:14pm

This is an open ended boondoggle to be paid for come hell or high water, for as long as it takes, because the political class sees the academic, tilting-at-windmills AQUA VENTUS entity, as an existential government-subsidized venture to “put Maine on the map”.

Who in hell would be paying?

The naivety of all this is beyond rational.
When will the adults assert themselves?

Someone should take these dreaming, self-serving scoundrels by the scruff and shake some sense into them, aka shock treatment.

If that does not work, lobotomies would be a benign solution

Comment by Dan McKay on March 21, 2023 at 5:16pm
Maine PUC Commissioners Order 2-25-2023
Staff to enter into negotiations with NEAV (NEW ENGLAND AQUA VENTUS) towards entering into a long-term contract consistent with the terms set forth in the confidential proposed term sheet attached to this Order
THE CONFIDENTIAL TERMS:
 The pricing structure proposed by Pine Tree will recognize and accommodate “the commercial challenges in long-term cost estimation for large marine energy infrastructure”.
It also will “permit power purchase agreement capacity, energy and renewable energy credit prices to be adjusted based on changing costs prior to the final investment decision by New England Aqua Ventus, LLC or its affiliate and the Commission, employing state of the art marine commercial cost estimation and control mechanisms such as indexing and inflation adjustment mechanisms”. 
THE ADJUSTED PRICE !!!!   CONFIDENTIAL !!!!!!
Comment by Willem Post on March 21, 2023 at 4:33pm

Mainers who voted for Democrats are getting what they deserve.

Republicans,

YOU HAVE TO GO THE BALLOT BOX EN MASSE

TTHROW THE WOKE BASTARDS OUT

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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