Democratic Rep. Jared Golden says Biden administration's green hypocrisy 'pisses me off'

Maine Democrat Rep. Jared Golden on Monday criticized the Biden administration for regulations on his home state's lobster industry.

He argues the regulations target the industry and its impact on whale species while ignoring environmental effects in other areas of the economy.

"The hypocrisy part is what pisses me off because we know that right whales, other whales, get struck by freight vessels all the time," he told Fox News Digital. "Cruise ships that are out there carting people around hit them. You see very little effort by the federal government to do anything." 

Under the Biden administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued new vessel regulations, trap guidelines and more to try and save the lives of North Atlantic right whales.

"They see a small business lobster fishery up in Maine that's not politically important to them and they try to crush it just to try to prove to the environmental groups that they're actively trying to protect the right whales," Golden also said about the new regulations.

He additionally criticized the administration for treating the lobster industry differently than the energy industry as offshore wind projects could create issues for marine species. 

"Am I concerned about hypocrisy in how the federal government deals with like the Maine lobster fishery, as opposed to big energy projects The answer is 100% yes, because for four years now, I have been constantly harassing the federal government to show us one piece of evidence that Maine's lobster fishery is at all responsible for any kind of entanglement of whales let alone a death of a right whale," Golden said.

Since 2017, 21 North Atlantic Right Whales have died off the U.S. coast from vessel strikes or entanglements, according to NOAA data, but the agency does not state whether the incidents, if any, involved the lobster industry.