More than 150 environmental activists on Saturday rallied in Searsport against the possibility of an off-shore wind project on Sears Island.
Attendees of the rally, organized by groups such the Friends of Sears Island, Sierra Club and Isleboro Islands Trust, said they support renewable energy projects, even in the Searsport region — just not at Sears Island.
In 2020, the Governor’s Energy Office identified Searsport as a site for clean-energy development. The original vision began at the Mack Point Terminal, in Searsport, which is already a developed cargo facility. But in November 2021, that focus shifted to Sears Island, a third of which is state owned, because it was more cost effective.
The Department of Transportation has not decided on a site for the project, according to spokesperson Paul Merrill.
The rally at Mermaid Plaza attracted kids who swam at Sears Island’s beaches this summer and older generations who did the same when they were younger, Friends of Sears Island President Susan White said.
“It’s been so much a part of a lot of people’s lives, the island being the way it is,” White said.
More than 1,000 people have signed a petition calling for the state to stick with Mack Point, which is already home to industrial facilities, White said.
The petition states “we, the undersigned, support the development of an offshore wind facility at Mack Point, and oppose development of that facility on Sears Island, if any such facility is to be built in Penobscot Bay.”
“There is a certain urgency to getting renewable energy in use for Maine and for the world,” said Rolf Olsen, vice president of the Friends of Sears Island.
But building such a project off Sears Island would be “too damaging” to the natural habitats, he said.