Letter: Offshore wind port a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Maine

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Offshore wind is one of the biggest economic opportunities Maine has ever seen, even without considering its tremendous potential to meaningfully address climate change. The $456 million port proposal announced by the Maine Department of Transportation would be the largest ever federal investment in Maine, and would create long-term economic growth for Maine and thousands of quality clean energy jobs.

With so much at stake, we can’t afford to get this wrong. The state of Maine announced Sears Island as its preferred site for an offshore wind port. Sprague Energy, a fossil fuel company that owns Mack Point in Searsport, has offered a proposal it claims is more environmentally friendly. Conveniently, it would have taxpayers pay to upgrade and lease Sprague’s private facility for offshore wind development instead.

Throughout the permitting process, the site on Sears Island will be painstakingly assessed alongside alternatives like Mack Point by federal agencies and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. The process is rigorous, and will provide a full picture of the pros and cons of each site under consideration.

We can’t miss this clean energy opportunity, and I think we also can’t simply accept claims made by a fossil fuel company seeking to profit from offshore wind development. The June 13 column in the Bangor Daily News by Matthew Burns of Maine Port Authority shows that the choice is not as simple as Sprague would have us believe. Let’s see what the environmental analysis has to say before jumping to conclusions on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Maine.

Stephen Moriarty

West Bath