Category: News
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Beyond the Sacrifice Zone: Saving Sears Island is Part of Maine’s Climate Solution
By Susie O’Keeffe Early this spring a large number of people gathered in Searsport to hear about a proposal to develop an offshore wind port (OSW) on Sears Island. During this event, I overheard a well known (and well meaning) leader of one of Maine’s largest environmental organizations say, “the…
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“What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
This well-known quote from the Stother Martin “Captain” character in the iconic movie Cool Hand Luke applies perfectly to the Maine Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) approach to their plans to develop Sears Island instead of Mack Point for an offshore wind manufacturing facility. As a member of the Offshore Wind…
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A Wabanaki ancestral journey down the river to the ocean
Returning & Remembering Home Wabanaki people held a ceremonial canoe journey this August, following the main stem of the Bunawupskeag/Penobscot River to the Bay, ending at Sears Island/Mαli-pakαnsisíhkok/Hazelnut Island. As we paddled the four segments of this ancestral canoe route, we experienced an embodied remembering that we, as the…
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Renewable Energy and Climate Change
The Alliance for Sears Island supports Maine’s pursuit of offshore wind as part of a multi-faceted but determined response to climate change. Building an OSW manufacturing facility in Penobscot Bay, however, should be governed by these principles: 1. Pursue the least environmentally damaging plan, 2. Favor repurposing outdated and unused industrial energy…
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Sears Island and the BOEM Lease: Cart Before the Horse
On August 19, 2024, Governor Mills signed a lease from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for a floating offshore wind research array. Pine Tree Offshore Wind, a partnership that includes Diamond Offshore Wind, a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi company, UMaine’s VolturnUS, and Cianbro Corporation, will manufacture, assemble and…
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Searsport Select Board Meeting with MDOT 8.13.2024
In retrospect, I suppose it went pretty much as one might expect. Town Manager James Gilway explained the format and introduced Matthew Burns, Executive Director of Maine Port Authority (MPA). Burns thanked the Board for the invitation and said he was happy for the opportunity and would be available for…
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Maine’s Climate Security relies on Protecting Natural Resources
Alliance Note: Islesboro Islands Trust asked college student and summer intern Lucy Harley to review Maine climate change policies and write a short piece about how those policies should inform the decision to develop an offshore wind manufacturing, assembling and launching facility in Penobscot Bay. Below is Lucy’s essay. As…
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Do Not Destroy The Enviornment In The Name Of Renewable Energy
Saving Sears Island from unnecessary destruction represents the epi-center of the climate change crisis. The E.O. Wilson Foundation (https://eowilsonfoundation.org/what-is-the-half-earth-project/) reports that: “The ongoing mass extinction of the natural world ranks with pandemics, world wars, and climate change as among the greatest threats that humanity has imposed upon itself. [We] risk…
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We’re collecting stories from people who’ve brought Sears Island into their lives – A project by Sears Island Stories
We’re collecting stories from people who’ve brought Sears Island into their lives, gathering remembrances and images, for this site, socials, and a book.Would you share a memory to show how the island is precious to you?– Sears Island Stories Sears Island Stories is brought to you by poet and novelist Bill…
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Poems by Gary Lawless
JULY 7, 2024 Eel-Grass Sears Island Hard to be lonelyin the lushness ofeel-grass, feeling the ocean’sebb and flow —hard to knowwant or hurt orwaste, here belowthe sun, the sky,the water’s edge ofgrass and mud andmoving with the moonhard to knowthe hearts of men, thosewho would fill and spill andkill all…
Alliance for Sears Island 