When Governor Andrew Cuomo decided to ban fracking in New York State in December 2014, New Yorkers thought their worries were over. They were wrong.

Conventional wind facilities on land, while essential for the renewable energy sector, are troubled by the intermittency of wind strength. But offshore wind facilities could offer an efficient means of drawing a highly abundant source of energy.

If you are an environmental lawyer, there is nothing more deflating than reading a judge's decision that clinically rejects all your best arguments. I know because I have had my share of losing environmental cases.

Other countries are taking offshore wind development far more seriously than the U.S. It's not too late, but the U.S. needs to up its game to see offshore wind as a scalable, commercial sector.

There are a lot of great things Europe has that the U.S. doesn't -- comfortable taxis, good table wine, Idris Elba -- and then there's offshore wind, lots and lots of offshore wind.

Unfortunately, LePage chose to base his veto message on a desire to undo a deal already in place with Statoil to develop an offshore wind-power pilot project and allow the process to be reopened so the University of Maine can put in a competing bid.