The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has finalized an area in the Gulf of Maine where a commercial offshore wind farm could be developed.
The area covers 2 million acres offshore from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, ranging anywhere from 23 to 92 miles off the coast, BOEM said Friday.
The final area represents an 80% reduction from the section that federal officials had initially identified for potential leasing and a 43% cut from the draft that BOEM released last fall.
“We appreciate that the bureau has heeded our concerns and the majority of the concerns of Maine’s fishing communities in its final designation of wind energy areas for the Gulf of Maine," Gov. Janet Mills, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King said Friday in a statement. "This decision preserves vital fishing grounds and seeks to minimize potential environmental and ecological impacts to the Gulf of Maine."
The wind area excludes Lobster Management Area 1, which is home to popular fishing grounds for the state's lobster fleet.
"BOEM did good in their attempt to come up and meet with small groups and really listen to what the fishermen had to say about those areas," said Virginia Olsen, the director of Maine Lobstering Union. "And I think that's a direct result of them coming off [the table]."
The wind area announced Friday also avoids two out of the three secondary regions in Maine that federal officials were considering but fishermen opposed. The secondary area that is included is about 45 miles off the Midcoast, where Olsen said endangered North Atlantic right whales have been spotted.
BOEM said the final areas avoid most right whale habitats and a majority of historical and present-day fishing grounds of tribal nations, which conservation groups acknowledged.
"For the most part, this designation has carved out the most sensitive areas and excluded them from wind turbine construction,” Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president of law and policy for the Conservation Law Foundation, said Friday in a statement. "CLF will continue to work with BOEM to ensure all possible protections for vulnerable marine wildlife and important habitats are built into the process as it moves toward leasing and construction of these floating turbines. This a very good day for our climate and our energy future.”
Sarah Haggerty, a conservation biologist with the Maine Audubon, said the group also feels its concerns were heard, as the selected locations should reduce the greatest risks to birds, bats and other wildlife.
"We really wanted to see any area being considered for wind development to be pushed further away from any land, including the islands," she said.
Haggerty acknowledged offshore wind poses many unknowns but believes future projects can protect wildlife and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"We need renewable energy; we're already decades late," she said. "And so we really need to going on addressing climate change, and we really do believe that with some dedication and hard work we can sort of have both."
The area can support the generation of 32 gigawatts of wind energy, BOEM said. Maine has set a goal of procuring three gigawatts of offshore wind energy; Massachusetts wants to produce 10 gigawatts.
But others are less excited about the prospects. Like others, the Maine Lobstermen's Association appreciated that popular fishing grounds were avoided, but it said "no area of the Gulf of Maine should be industrialized with offshore wind."
"Our position is that there's already an industry in the Gulf of Maine," said Kristan Porter, a fisherman and board president for the MLA. "We shouldn't be displacing one industry for another."
And at the very least, fishermen still have a lot of questions.
"How close can we fish to them? What does this do for search and rescue? What happens with our insurance if we were to be fishing around one and get tangled up in something that we shouldn't? Will our insurance companies still insure our vessels in those areas?" said the Lobstering Union's Virginia Olsen.
Before those questions are answered, BOEM will begin preparing an environmental assessment about the impacts of offshore wind development in the area. The public will have an opportunity to comment, before a final decision is made on whether to move forward with leasing the area. The agency has said that it could take six to eight years before a developer has the permits it needs to begin building a wind farm in the Gulf of Maine.
At the same time, BOEM is still considering a separate proposal that the state of Maine submitted for a research array of floating offshore wind turbines more than 20 miles off the coast near Portland.
Both fishing and environmental groups in Maine have said that they want the state's offshore wind program to move forward before any commercial leasing. But it's still unclear whether the research program has much of a head start — if at all — on any federal commercial projects in the Gulf of Maine.
