Page 8 - Mack Point News Today

Environmentalists are decrying a year-long process meant to gather public feedback on where to build a deepwater offshore wind port, calling it a “charade.”

One key to harnessing that wind lies at the end of a causeway jutting into the bay, on a mostly undeveloped island where eagles fish offshore and people walk in the quiet shade. Many officials see this spot, known as Sears Island, as the ideal site to build and launch a flotilla of turbines that could significantly lessen Maine’s reliance on fossil fuels. Standing in their way are environmental groups and local residents, all of whom are committed to a clean energy future and worried a...

If there is anywhere in the country primed to welcome the clean energy transition, it is Penobscot Bay in Maine. Electricity prices there are high and volatile. The ocean waters are warming fast, threatening the lobster fishery. Miles offshore, winds blow strong enough to heat every home and power every car in the state. For more than 15 years, researchers at the University of Maine have been honing scale models of floating wind turbines inspired by oil rigs. They are now confident they can mass

Environmentalists are decrying a year-long process meant to gather public feedback on where to build a deepwater offshore wind port, calling it a “charade.” They say state officials failed to adequately engage the public or tribal communities and...

Environmentalists are criticizing a yearlong process meant to gather public feedback on where to build a deepwater offshore wind port, calling it a “charade.” They say Maine officials have failed to adequately engage the public or tribal communities and effectively decided where to build the port long before the process began. The Maine Department of Transportation has been making an internal case for Sears Island while “giving an illusion of an im...

Maine officials are accused of long favoring Sears Island, the largest undeveloped island in Penobscot Bay, as the future site of the port.

Environmentalists have accused state officials of long favoring Sears Island as the future site of the offshore wind port.

Environmentalists are decrying a year-long process meant to gather public feedback on where to build a deepwater offshore wind port, calling it a “charade.”

Resistance to wind and solar projects from environmentalists is among an array of impediments to widespread conversion to renewables.

One person vowed to bind the state up in legal filings if it decided to construct the port at Sears Island.