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I think the Maine Department of Transportation has a bee in its bonnet. Mack Point is the better site to develop an offshore wind terminal. Unfortunately Maine DOT is focusing instead on Sears Island, which has a sordid history of curtailed proposals due to the importance of the island’s coastal wetlands and resources.
Tasked with evaluating ports in Maine to accommodate the marshaling of the floating wind turbines designed by the University of Maine under Habib Dahger, MDOT’s own preliminary study by Moffat and Nichols, states both Mack Point and Sears Island are possible sites for the marshaling effort.
Mack Point and Sears Island share a harbor. Mack Point’s industrial site provides shuttered oil tanks, a rail spur, and infrastructure in place. Offering no benefit to terrestrial or aquatic environment, it is not on the migratory pathway, has no amphibians and has no wetlands to capture carbon. What better place to site new technology replacing a dirty, outmoded, 20th century dinosaur.
Let’s choose to site renewable infrastructure to promote the highest good. Sears Island is a perfect showpiece for the Climate Council’s initiative to provide carbon sequestering resources. Don’t get stung, choose Mack Point over Sears Island.
Becky Layton Bartovics
North Haven