February 21, 2024 — Labor unions, environmental advocates and many lawmakers are looking to Maine’s budding offshore wind industry to help transition the state into the future, as a climate-friendly driver of investment and jobs.
On Tuesday. Gov. Janet Mills announced that Sears Island on the northern tip of Penobscot Bay would be the location of a new port from which floating turbines would be assembled and launched into the Gulf of Maine.
This isn’t the first time Maine has tried to procure the alternative energy source.
Back in 2010, the state began working with international oil and gas company Statoil on a $120 million offshore wind pilot project that never came to fruition. Then-Gov. Paul LePage was opposed to the project, arguing it didn’t provide enough benefits to the state, as reported by Bangor Daily News in 2013.
“We had the chance to do this 15 years ago, and we blew it,” said Kathleen Meil, senior director of policy and partnerships for Maine Conservation Voters, referring to the failed wind project.
But last legislative session, Mills signed a law that not only brought offshore wind back to life, but did so with high labor and environmental standards, which she says will help build quality jobs while achieving the goal of having infrastructure to create three gigawatts — enough to power between 675,000 and 900,000 homes — installed by the end of 2040.