Meeting May 14, the Bristol Board of Selectmen unanimously accepted a petition to hold a special open town meeting to consider preventing transmission cables from an offshore wind power project coming ashore on Bristol public land.
The petition had 225 accepted signatures of registered Bristol voters, well over the 160 signature threshold required to validate the petition.
Board of Selectmen chair Chad Hanna said the special town meeting would include a non-binding vote. According to Hanna the town does not have the authority to prohibit power transmission cables.
“That falls under the purview of the Public Utilities Commission,” he said.
According to Bristol town attorney Jenny Villeneuve, citing state law, a municipality may not enact an ordinance that would prohibit or obstruct offshore projects. Hanna said that writing such an article would require legal counsel and the town has nearly exhausted its legal budget for the year.
According to Hanna, while the wording of the petition cannot be changed, a non-binding vote at a special town meeting would still carry some weight. “This is not to say that it isn’t a valid referendum within the town to gauge support or lack of support for the project,” he said.
The Friends of Muscongus Bay began the drive to garner signatures for the petition April 21. The group was established to oppose the pilot wind power project slated for construction two miles south of Monhegan Island.
Maine Aqua Ventus I GP LLC is the company behind the research project to study the feasibility of establishing a wind power farm of up to 80 windmills off the shores of Maine.
Last week Aqua Ventus lost its bid for a $47 million grant to fund the project, and instead are to receive a much smaller amount to complete design and engineering work.
“I don’t know what that $3 million they were awarded exactly allows them to do,” Hanna said. “It could give them the ability to move forward with some kind of permit, I don’t know.”
