April 30, 2025 (Augusta, ME) – The Trump Administration has announced a program that could allow offshore oil and gas drilling off the coast of Maine, prompting opposition from one of the state’s leading environmental groups.
In an April 29 announcement, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it will open up public comment on a proposal to kick-start oil and gas exploration and drilling in ocean waters nationwide, including off Maine’s coast. Earlier in April, Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced they are cosponsoring bipartisan legislation to prohibit offshore drilling along the Maine coast, extending throughout the entirety of New England.
The Natural Resources Council of Maine, the state’s leading nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to protecting Maine’s environment, issued the following statement from Climate & Clean Energy Director Jack Shapiro:
“This administration’s hostility to Maine developing its best homegrown clean energy source in favor of dirty and expensive fossil fuels defies explanation. Offshore oil and gas exploration would directly threaten our marine ecosystems, risk devastation to our vibrant tourist economy, and harm our heritage fishing industry.
Expanding offshore drilling nationwide sets us back in the necessary work to protect Maine’s working waterfronts and coastal communities from the worst impacts of climate change. It ignores data going back decades showing there’s no economically recoverable oil or gas in the Gulf of Maine.
The Gulf of Maine has some of the strongest and most consistent winds in the world. We should be embracing the opportunity for a new Maine-based offshore wind industry that provides reliable clean energy and good-paying jobs for our state, while protecting wildlife and avoiding important fishing grounds.”
