The climate crisis continues to barrel towards us, threatening Maine’s pristine environment and our communities. This crisis requires big, bold action. We must quickly and equitably transition our fossil fuel based economy into a new, renewable energy economy, and offshore wind projects will be essential. As we transition to a 100% clean energy grid, we must also avoid impacts to wildlife and ecosystems to the greatest extent possible to avoid accelerating the ongoing biodiversity crisis. Environmentally responsible offshore wind energy projects can spur economic development, create jobs in coastal communities, improve energy security, and cut climate-destabilizing pollution.
The Sierra Club strongly supports the development of substantial wind resources for electricity generation. Wind power is a reliable, clean, renewable resource that can help reduce our dependence on polluting fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) and nuclear power for electricity. The Gulf of Maine is the best offshore wind resource area in the eastern US, with the ultimate potential of tens of gigawatts of wind generation capacity. Offshore wind will provide a stable and affordable source of electricity, protecting Maine people and businesses from the volatile price spikes we are experiencing because of the region’s heavy reliance on dirty oil and gas. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), offshore wind can be a major clean energy source for the New England electric grid — and the winds in the Gulf of Maine peak in the winter months when Maine’s energy use is the highest.
To prepare for Maine’s development of a floating offshore wind research array and future commercial development in the Gulf of Maine, the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) is leading the effort to develop an offshore wind marshaling port. (You can read more on Maine’s preparation and planning for offshore wind through the extensive work in the Offshore Wind Roadmap.) Through the Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group, Searsport has been identified as the most likely location for port development.
Through our work spanning decades, we continue to advocate for protection of Sears Island during this process as we wait for more cost and market information to become available through the offshore wind roadmap process. As we build out this new economy, we will face difficult choices that balance, speed, equity, impacts, etc. Overall, we believe the best precedent for this transition is to utilize degraded land, in this case currently developed Mack Point, while fully utilizing all federal funds currently available to offset the financial costs. We do encourage folks to continue to contact Governor Mills and MDOT to protect Sears Island and develop Mack Point.
Sierra Club supports the critical need to develop offshore wind through several bills this legislative session: port development with strong labor standards, LD 1818, and the procurement of offshore wind through LD 1895. We encourage our members and supporters to contact their legislators in support of those bills.
We need a clean energy transition now and offshore wind is a critical tool for Maine to do its part in addressing the climate crisis.