Category: News
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Is 2026 the Year of Wahsumkik?
Every end-of-the-year-2025 Maine news summary I’ve read says something about offshore wind…But all the numerous 2025 news summaries I’ve seen fail to mention the surge of interest in permanent protection of Sears Island that began years ago but grew in scope, number and conviction during the past year.
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Is Maine Offshore Wind Becalmed or Fogged-In?
The Silence is Deafening Loss of federal funding, diminished investor interest and a President Trump anti-offshore wind Executive Order make Maine’s plans for developing a commercial-scale offshore wind manufacturing facility on Sears Island obsolete. To date, neither Governor Mills nor MDOT officially recognize this reality. What is the current state…
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Deep-Dive into the MDOT Offshore Wind Facility Draft Pre-Application Alternatives Analysis:
Editor’s Note: This piece is the sixth in our series on issues raised or missing from the Draft Alternatives Analysis (the AA). The flawed, limited and frequently erroneous MDOT consideration of what has become known as the Sprague Alternative demonstrates extreme bias.
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Deep-Dive into the MDOT Offshore Wind Facility Draft Pre-Application Alternatives Analysis:
Editor’s Note: This piece is the fifth in our series on issues raised or missing from the Draft Alternatives Analysis (the AA). The Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) Sears Island development plan would “harvest” (remove) more than two million cubic yards of soil from the upland development site.
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Deep-Dive into the MDOT Offshore Wind Facility Draft Pre-Application Alternatives Analysis: Destroying Wetlands
Editor’s Note: This piece is the fourth in our series on issues raised or missing from the Draft Alternatives Analysis. That AA preferred a Sears Island development plan that would destroy at least 30 acres of important freshwater wetlands and trigger review of the illegal filling of Sears Island wetlands…
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Estimates of Carbon Sequestration at the Planned Windport site on Sears Island
Photo of tree removal in the proposed Sears Island development area taken in 2022 during geotechnical explorations there. Photo by Rolf Olsen [Editor’s Note: This piece is the third in our series on issues raised or missing from the Draft Alternatives Analysis. That AA failed to even consider the effects…
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Alternatives Analysis: Costs
As the State of Maine reels from yet another denial of federal funds to support the development of an Offshore Wind Port (OSWP) on Sears Island, it is important to contemplate the significant cost of such a project to the taxpayers of Maine in addition to the costs of this…
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Letter: Time to Abandon Sears Island Wind Port
Image: A sign urging to protect Sears Island, known to the locally indigenous people as Wahsumkik. Maine is eyeing Sears Island to develop a wind port. Credit: Sasha Ray / BDN 12/31/2024 Printed in the Bangor Daily News Now that federal funding for offshore wind has collapsed, and the president-elect…
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Sears Island Development Funds Denied – Again (and Again and Again…)
Tuesday, December 10, we learned that the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) failed to receive a $16 million grant for an offshore wind manufacturing facility on Sears Island. This marks the fourth MDOT grant application failure since 2023 for the Sears Island development. It’s past time for the Mills Administration…
Alliance for Sears Island 