Dive Brief:
Maine Governor Janet Mills, D, has called on the state legislature to implement a 10-year moratorium on offshore wind projects in state-managed waters, citing a need to keep the fishing industry engaged in ongoing talks about such development.
In a letter to the state's professional fishermen, Mills indicated she opposed commercial-scale offshore wind projects in areas near the state's shoreline, which she said support the majority of the state's fishing activity. However, she also expressed support for offshore wind development in federal waters further from shore.
A draft of the proposed moratorium is not yet available and so it is not yet clear how such legislation would impact existing offshore proposals, including a proposed floating turbine demonstration project by the University of Maine and New England Aqua Ventus, according to an attorney for the University of Maine System. The project would be the country's first offshore floating wind array, ahead of broader intentions for floating wind turbine development off the coast of California.