BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 20, 2024
Now that Gov. Janet Mills has announced that Sears Island is the preferred site for Maine’s wind port, many people are asking how they can help defend the island from development. Our position has been that if a wind port is needed in Penobscot Bay, it should be built on Mack Point, not Sears Island. We still believe this. Mack Point has the required 100 acres, it has been an industrial site for more than a century, the owner welcomes the development, and per the 2007 Sears Island Planning Initiative Consensus Agreement, the state is obligated to give “preference” to developing Mack Point over Sears Island. Now Mills has submitted a bill that would allow a permit for a wind port located in a protected “coastal sand dune system” on Sears Island. We fully support Maine’s plan to develop floating offshore wind as a key part of the state’s effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, but we continue to believe the port that will make that possible must be located on Mack Point. ~ Rolf Olsen, Friends of Sears Island