Offshore wind and fishing grounds
What they say
In the October 6 debate he said he passed bills to keep offshore wind out of Maine's fishing areas.
What the record shows ·
In 2023 he cosponsored LD 1895, Senator Mark Lawrence's offshore wind bill, and voted Yea when the Senate accepted the committee's report 20 to 13 on June 22. It became Public Law 2023, chapter 481, on July 27, 2023. The law has the state support offshore wind built outside the part of the Gulf of Maine where most lobster fishing happens, and tells regulators to give priority to projects outside Lobster Management Area 1. In 2021, while he was Senate President, the Legislature passed Lawrence's emergency bill LD 1619, which bars offshore wind projects from state waters, with exceptions for research, and cites the lobster fishery. It lists no cosponsors and had no roll call.
Limit: The 2023 law favors projects outside the main lobster grounds; it does not ban them there. The 2021 ban covers state waters only, and the record does not show his part in it. The Legislature lists Lawrence as sponsor of both and Jackson as a cosponsor of the 2023 one.