New Hampshire
Are NH and Maine poised to become the ‘Saudi Arabia of wind energy’? Advocates say yes.
CONCORD — The Gulf of Maine could be the Saudi Arabia of wind energy, said New Hampshire state Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, in advance of a press conference on the state and offshore wind.
On April 30, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a proposal by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for the first offshore wind energy auction in the Gulf of Maine. The sale would include eight lease areas off the coasts of Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, totaling nearly one million acres, with the potential to generate 15 gigawatts of energy – nearly half of the amount of energy that powers the current electric grid servicing the region.
On Thursday, New England for Offshore Wind, Granite Shore Power, New Hampshire business leaders, and state elected officials were scheduled to hold a press conference to urge the state to “get engaged” in the procurement and development of offshore wind power.
“We felt that it was time to lift this back up in terms of the opportunity that New Hampshire has to be part of a burgeoning industry,” said Rob Werner, New Hampshire state director of the League of Conservation voters and a member of New England for Offshore Wind. “Not only for environmental reasons in terms of decarbonizing our economy and addressing climate change, but also in terms of economic development, jobs in the region.”
The push for wind energy comes after the announcement that Schiller and Merrimack Station power plants will be converted into “renewable energy parks.” Granite Shore Power, the company that owns both plants, is supporting the offshore wind energy movement and will play a role in its development, according to Werner.
What’s the deal with offshore wind power?
Offshore wind power is a form of renewable energy where the force of the winds at sea is harnessed and transformed into electricity.
In 2016, Block Island Wind Farm, located off of Block Island, Rhode Island, became the first project in the United States to deliver offshore wind power to the grid. In March, the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm opened off Montauk Point in New York. In Europe, there are several offshore wind farms in places like the United Kingdom, Denmark, and the Netherlands. In addition to the Gulf of Maine, the DOI proposal also included a wind energy auction off the coast of Oregon.
Offshore wind farms can create a large amount of clean energy: the proposed offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine has the potential to power 5 million homes. It also does so far away from where people live, meaning there is little local impact. Watters said the proposed offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine would be too far away for people to see.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a press release these projects are part of the administration’s commitment to develop clean energy and create jobs. In New Hampshire, Werner and Watters see offshore wind as an economic windfall.
“I think there’s so many opportunities; it’s not only the developers that you know, would be putting in the actual turbines in the Gulf of Maine,” Werner said. “There’s a supply chain aspect to it, and economic development aspect to it in terms of jobs, in terms of electricians and welders and professionals of all types as this industry grows.”
The wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine are likely to be floating, rather than be attached to a big pole like those on land. They’d be attached to the ocean floor by a cable.
Offshore wind farms face opposition from fishermen
Fisheries and lobstermen have voiced opposition to the offshore wind farms. Watters said fishermen are worried about “any loss of bottom” in terms of where they can fish. He said they took those fears into account and excluded areas that are prime fishing grounds. But in Maine, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association has pushed back against any industrialization of the Gulf of Maine.
Environmental organizations, too, are worried about the impact the farms could have on birds and marine life. But Werner said groups like the National Wildlife Federation and Audubon have been part of the conversations since the beginning.
“There really is a way to create a balance. Part of the reason that those organizations came to the table in the first place, was the realization of the impact of climate change. In the Gulf of Maine, the waters are warming more rapidly than almost anywhere else, affecting wildlife,” Werner said. “You can arrange and create a situation for offshore wind development that takes into consideration bird migration patterns and things of that nature.”
Public meetings to be held on offshore wind project
The conversation isn’t over yet; throughout the next couple months, there will be a 60-day public comment period on the proposed sale. BOEM will host three in-person meetings where the public will have the chance to discuss the auctions with BOEM scientists and other employees, as well as five virtual meetings directed at different stakeholders, like commercial fishing and environmental organizations.
The first in-person meeting is scheduled for May 28 in in Portland, Maine. The second will be the following day, May 29, at the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth from 5 to 8 p.m. The third is set for May 30 in Danvers, Massachusetts.
Soon after Joshua Bogden attempted to register to vote on the day of Portsmouth’s municipal elections Nov. 11, he faced a tough decision.
Bogden had not brought along a passport or birth certificate to prove his citizenship. And though he had previously been registered and voted in Wilton, poll workers told Bogden he needed to leave and return with one of those physical documents.
Bogden could either drive to city hall and request a same-day copy of his birth certificate, or rush home and find his own copy. But he had only hours until the polls closed, and only minutes before Portsmouth stopped its birth certificate service at 4:30.
In the end, Bogden decided to drive home and chance that he could find the certificate, he said during a press conference Thursday. He did find it and was able to vote. But the hassle he faced is at the center of arguments by some that recent changes to New Hampshire’s voter registration laws are too strict and will result in frustrated voters choosing not to vote.
“Luckily, I lived nearby,” he said. “But if there had been any more sort of traffic or anything in my personal life — going home to pick up the kids, trying to do this after work — there’s no way I would have been able to come back and vote successfully.”
Since a new law took effect November 2024, New Hampshire voters are required to produce hard copies of citizenship documents the first time they register to vote in the state. The law eliminated the previous option for voters registering on Election Day to sign a “qualified voter affidavit” that allowed them to vote without proving citizenship by testifying on penalty of perjury that they were a U.S. citizen.
Republican supporters of the law, House Bill 1569, say the new requirements are reasonable and necessary to close loopholes that could allow non-citizens to vote, and that voters should prepare by obtaining their citizenship documents in advance
Lawmakers also passed a follow-up law in 2025, House Bill 464, that allows local election officials to access the Statewide Voter Registration System, New Hampshire Vital Records, and Division of Motor Vehicle databases in order to attempt to corroborate a resident’s citizenship.
But a number of voting rights groups are suing in federal court to block the law, arguing it creates an unconstitutional burden and that it will disenfranchise eligible voters, especially those for whom obtaining a passport or birth certificate could be difficult.
In the meantime, the October and November municipal elections have offered a fresh look into how the new law might affect voting in practice.
According to a tally by the New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights, 123 voters were turned away from the polls due to a lack of documents. Combined with the 121 residents the group reported were turned away for the same reason during town meetings in spring, at least 244 people were turned away in 2025, the group says.
Voting rights advocates and Democrats argue those tallies are a cautionary tale for the state ahead of the September 2026 state primaries and the November 2026 midterm federal election. Many more people are likely to vote in those elections, and many more who don’t bring along their citizenship documentation could be turned away, advocates warn.
They hope U.S. District Court Judge Samantha Elliott, who is presiding over the lawsuit, will issue an injunction ahead of the midterms. A full evidentiary trial in that case is expected in February.
At Thursday’s press conference, advocates attempted to show the difficulty posed by the new documentary requirements, which election law experts have called the strictest in the country.
In addition to Bogden, Brayden Rumsey, a Dover voter, said he had to drive home to retrieve his passport in order to vote Nov. 11. Rumsey was not aware of the new citizenship documentation requirements; he had assumed that showing a REAL ID driver’s license would suffice, since to obtain it he had been required to show his passport.
“I have my own car. I have my own way of getting there. I don’t have any kids to take care of. I have access to a passport and access to my birth certificate that I could easily get,” he said. “I know a lot of people don’t have that privilege like I do.”
And Michael Blanchette, who recently moved from Concord to Manchester, said he had called the city ahead of the Nov. 11 election to get confirmation of his citizenship using his previous registration and presence on the voter database. But despite that confirmation, Blanchette said he was still asked for citizenship documentation at the Manchester Ward 7 polls, and had to wait an hour for multiple election workers and city officials to clear him to vote.
“(I knew) if I went back home and took my pain meds, I was not coming back out,” he said. “And it was now or never. So I stuck through it. I didn’t realize it would just drag on.”
Linnea Hartsuyker, a supervisor of the checklist in Dover’s Ward 5, said she had seen at least one prospective voter leave and not return once learning of the requirements.
Hartsuyker said the 2025 law providing election workers access to the state voter file proved helpful, allowing her to verify at least those voters who had already registered. That remedy would not have worked for new voters who moved from out of state, she said.
“Last year at the general (election) I and my team registered 50 people per hour for 12 hours,” she said. “That’s almost one person per minute with the old system, and I am quite worried about being able to do that in the coming election, at the midterms.”
Access to those state databases might vary from polling place to polling place depending on internet availability and the amount of time and manpower available during a rush of voters, critics say. Rumsey and Blanchette said workers at their polling places did not appear to have direct access to those databases, necessitating calls to city hall officials.
It is not clear how the apparent tallies of voters turned away from voting might affect the trial in next year’s lawsuit.
In a July 29 ruling, Elliott ruled that some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed in 2024, lacked standing because their experiences did not directly demonstrate a potential unconstitutional barrier to voting. But she granted standing to other plaintiffs, such as the Coalition for Open Democracy, the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire, the Forward Foundation, and three plaintiffs who were minors but planned to register to vote when they turned 18 and said the need to procure documentation was a burden.
The Attorney General’s Office has defended the law and said the constitutional challenges are not substantiated. In a Nov. 7 memorandum asking Elliott to dismiss the case, Assistant Attorney General Michael DeGrandis argued that the law struck a balance between allowing every eligible person to vote and safeguarding the process from fraud.
“New Hampshire pairs that open access with commonsense eligibility checks so only the votes of eligible voters are counted,” DeGrandis wrote. “Striking this balance is essential to guarantee an election system that is both welcoming and vigilant in protecting the integrity of the ballot.”
And he wrote that the law does not impede the organizations suing, and that the individual plaintiffs “have not offered competent evidence of cognizable injuries.”
“It is Plaintiffs’ burden to come forward with definite, competent evidence of injury, causation, and redressability, but they have not,” DeGrandis wrote.
Kansas State’s Chris Klieman fights back tears after loss to Utah: ‘One of the greatest efforts I’ve been a part of’
Julia Pellerin Hat Trick Propels Huskies Over Vermont – University of Connecticut Athletics
Wisconsin football insider: A closer look at Darrion Dupree’s 84-yard touchdown run
West Virginia health system plans to acquire 5 Pa. hospitals | Chief Healthcare Executive
Josh Allen’s jersey number becomes the first in UW Football history to be retired
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Video: ‘It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way:’ U.Va. Faculty Call for Review of Police Response to Protests
President says Chicagoans are ‘chanting bring in Trump’ after violent downtown riot leaves 8 shot, 1 dead
Get to know Méabh McMahon, co-anchor of Euronews’ Europe Today
Hitting the road for Thanksgiving? Here’s the best time to go
Video: In Charlotte, Border Patrol Arrests Send Families Into Hiding
GOP Senate hopeful reveals how Dems are making America ‘weaker’ in viral video ahead of Thanksgiving
-
Business6 days agoFire survivors can use this new portal to rebuild faster and save money
-
World5 days agoFrance and Germany support simplification push for digital rules
-
News6 days agoCourt documents shed light on Indiana shooting that sparked stand-your-ground debate
-
World1 week ago2% of Russian global oil supply affected following Ukrainian attack
-
World6 days agoCalls for answers grow over Canada’s interrogation of Israel critic
-
World5 days agoSinclair Snaps Up 8% Stake in Scripps in Advance of Potential Merger
-
Business5 days ago
Amazon’s Zoox offers free robotaxi rides in San Francisco
-
Politics5 days agoDuckworth fires staffer who claimed to be attorney for detained illegal immigrant with criminal history
