AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage has joined a group of Atlantic and Gulf coast governors working to expand offshore energy production, becoming the first member of the group from a northeastern state.

The OCS Governors Coalition includes the Republican governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maine, as well as the Democratic governor of Virginia. The group has lobbied the federal government to boost efforts to explore and approve production of energy from offshore oil, gas and renewable sources.

“I’m pleased to join the OCS Governors Coalition and eager to get to work,” said LePage in a prepared statement. “Safe, responsible development of our offshore energy resources will create jobs, boost our economy and enhance our national energy security.”

OCS stands for Outer Continental Shelf, defined by the federal government as all the offshore land under U.S. jurisdiction.

In January, President Barack Obama announced plans to open a portion of the Mid-Atlantic from Virginia to Florida for gas and oil drilling in 2017, something for which the coalition had advocated since it was founded in 2011.

A 2014 investigation by the Center for Public Integrity revealed that the governors group operates in close cooperation with the energy industry, chiefly the Consumer Energy Alliance, an industry group the center showed had conducted much of the governors’ work associated with the coalition. According to the center, CEA has “channeled millions in corporate funding to become a leading advocate at the state level for drilling.”

The OCS Governors Coalition proclaims an “all of the above” energy strategy, including support for offshore wind development, which LePage has opposed, arguing the technology is not yet cost-effective for Maine’s energy consumers.

Broadly speaking, LePage is supportive of offshore drilling, according to the governor’s energy chief, Patrick Woodcock. He said LePage was interested in ensuring that Maine, as a coastal state, has a voice in the federal rulemaking process for offshore energy development.

LePage was formally approached to join the group in a letter from the coalition’s chairman, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, Woodcock said. McCrory was a guest of LePage’s during the 2014 Maine GOP Convention.

“As the first member state from the Northeast, Gov. LePage’s membership broadens the coalition’s geographic representation of bipartisan coastal governors,” McCrory said in a statement. “I look forward to having a new voice and perspective at the table as we continue to push for responsibly expanding the use of our offshore energy resources.”

LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said Friday that LePage’s chief concern is Maine’s energy independence, and that he is most interested in expanding access to natural gas in the Pine Tree State.

“We’ll have to wait and see” whether that includes offshore drilling, she said.