From a bird’s-eye view, it looked like a gathering of seafarers circling a totem pole off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The totem pole in question is an 850 feet tall Vineyard wind turbine, albeit one with a broken wing, which snapped and fell off into the ocean in July.
The congregation chose this damaged wind turbine as the protest site, apparently praying for the downfall of the offshore wind (OSW) industry. In attendance were the captains and crew of lobster, tuna, squid, and scallop fishermen and fisherwomen, along with a fleet of twenty-five fishing boats, from Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey. These protests have been most intense in the state of Maine, where the lobster industry is central to the state’s economy and culture.
Such protests notwithstanding, over the past three years, Maine has made rapid strides in developing a robust OSW policy framework. In July 2023, the state passed an omnibus OSW procurement and ports bill (LD 1895), which authorizes procurement of up to three gigawatts of offshore wind energy. This, along with a similar procurement guarantee from Massachusetts, prompted the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to kick-start the process for one of the largest OSW lease sales, containing eight leases for a total of over one million acres in the Gulf of Maine.
If fully developed, these areas will provide approximately thirteen gigawatts of clean OSW energy, which could power more than 4.5 million homes. Equally important, LD 1895 also ensures good quality jobs, paves the way for a state-of-the-art OSW port facility, and protects critical lobstering areas to reduce impact on commercial fishing.
This major policy success seemed unimaginable two years ago when…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Prakash Kashwan
