February 23, 2024
Maine

Organizers stand against building offshore wind port at Sears Island

By Marleigha Clipston. Published: Feb. 21, 2024 at wabi.tv

The Alliance for Sears Island and their allies gathered in Belfast today to stand against the decision to build an offshore wind port at Sears Island.

Governor Mills announced the location Tuesday.

The Alliance believes the state should have offshore wind power, but the port should be at a different location

They say Mack Point would be a better site and just as many jobs would be available there.

Organizers believe the biodiversity of Sears Island needs to be preserved and building a wind port there will destroy it.

Becky Barovick a member of the Alliance for Sears Island said “We want to see the economics. We want to see what they provided and we’ll, you know, we’ll go from there. But for right now, we think that they’ve left out a number of things in terms of the infrastructure costs to building on Sears island that tilts it towards building on Sears Island rather than Mack Point. We’d like to see them really do their due diligence in a way that we can understand why we have to sacrifice the best birding place in the state of Maine for instance”.

Governor Mills says while it wasn’t an easy decision, Sears Island is partially owned by the state while Mack Point is privately owned, and Sears Island also has deeper water access that would not require dredging.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2024/02/23/organizers-stand-against-building-offshore-wind-port-at-sears-island/