As the industry battles federal right-whale regulations, L.D. 710 calls for allocating 20% of the fishery's license surcharges – about $380,000 a year – to the legal defense fund through 2030.
The final version was pretty much the same bill that stalled in the Legislature two weeks ago, providing $450 relief checks to nearly 900,000 Maine taxpayers, putting an additional $50 million into low-income heat assistance programs and allocating $21 million more in emergency housing assistance.
A legislative committee reversed course Tuesday, voting to support a roughly $900,000 fund to pay for the lobster industry's legal fight against federal rules that aim to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.
Three of Deepwater Wind s turbines stand off Block Island, R.I.
The fight over development of wind energy off the coast of Maine has moved to the State House, where lawmakers heard from dozens of supporters and opponents on Tuesday. Environmentally, economically and culturally this offshore wind proposal is as bad as it gets, says state Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, a Winter Harbor Republican who represents several midcoast fishing communities.
Faulkingham presented a bill intended to bar offshore wind energy projects, whether in state-controlled waters within three miles of shore or federal waters beyond. He says that the state should instead focus on other renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity or even nuclear power.