MAINE PUBLIC • June 26, 2023
Gov. Janet Mills has vetoed a bill that aimed to streamline the permitting process for a facility to build massive wind turbines. Mills actually sponsored the bill, LD 1847, as a way to set "visual impact standards" for a port where businesses would manufacture the turbines needed for offshore wind power projects. The bill was cruising through the Legislature. But then Democrats changed the measure to add a "project labor agreement" requirement for any port construction jobs and related manufacturing facilities. In a letter to lawmakers last week, Mills warned that she would veto the bill unless the project labor agreement language was removed. Supporters of the PLA language criticized Mills’ veto of the legislation.