Alliance for Sears Island

The Alliance for Sears Island supports the development of an offshore wind facility at Mack Point, and opposes development of that facility on Sears Island, if any such facility is to be built in Penobscot Bay.

March 11, 2020. Governor Mills announced that the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) would begin assessment of Mack Point as the location for a floating offshore wind facility in Searsport to support growth of renewable energy in Maine.

November 18, 2021. MDOT releases the Feasibility Study and Concept Design Report by the engineering firm of Moffat & Nichol (M&N). The M&N report found that, “…with modifications, both the Mack Point and Sears Island sites can achieve or surpass the minimum required criteria” for a 100-acre offshore wind facility. However, M&N went further and recommended “a marine terminal on Sears Island as a centralized hub for assembly and launching of floating foundations as well as erection of the WTG [wind turbine generator] components onto the foundations.”

Friends of Sears Island, Sierra Club Maine Chapter, Islesboro Islands Trust, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Scott Dickerson and others immediately sprang into action, in large part because of their past efforts to protect Sears Island’s significant ecological characteristics. These groups and individuals were deeply involved in a Sears Island Planning Initiative during the mid-2000’s that culminated in the Consensus Agreement of 2007, which states in relevant part, “Mack Point shall be given preference as an alternative to port development on Sears Island.”

If both Mack Point and Sears Island can support an OSW port, then preference must be given to Mack Point.

The initial loose gathering of people and organizations became the Alliance for Sears Island, an unincorporated association having a particular interest in Penobscot Bay and committed to protecting the environmental benefits of Sears Island.

The Alliance for Sears Island currently includes Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, Campaign to Protect Sears Island / Wahsumkik, Friends of Sears Island, Friends of Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Friends of the Harriett Hartley Conservation Area, Islesboro Islands Trust, Preserve Rural Maine, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Sierra Club Maine Chapter, Upstream Watch and a growing number of citizens, all eager to maintain the ecological integrity of Penobscot Bay even as we combat the climate emergency.

Visualize this: while undertaking renewable energy development to mitigate climate change, re-purpose Mack Point’s historical coal and oil-based working waterfront or destroy more than 100 acres of intact green and blue terrestrial and marine ecology at Sears Island. We think the choice is quite clear.