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Stephen Miller is the executive director of Islesboro Islands Trust.
On Aug. 19, Gov. Janet 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, the University of Maine’s VolturnUS, and Cianbro Corporation, will manufacture, assemble and launch up to 12 wind turbines. The research turbines will then get anchored in the lease area where the energy produced is transmitted via buried cable to a distribution substation, which carries it to the end user.
The governor’s announcement of the lease agreement included a reminder that Sears Island is the preferred site for the Pine Tree Offshore Wind partnership “to construct and service [the] floating offshore wind turbines.”
In a grant application to the U.S. Department of Transportation for funding for a port to support offshore wind development, the Maine Department of Transportation projected a cost of $760 million to develop the Sears Island site.
By selecting Sears Island as the site for its offshore wind manufacturing facility, Maine puts the proverbial cart before the horse. A full and objective alternative analysis comparing Sears Island with other possible offshore wind manufacturing sites does not currently exist. The Public Utilities Commission continues to struggle over cost issues and consequently has not approved a power purchase agreement for the research array. Available site analysis and engineering undertaken to date shows that a robust offshore wind manufacturing, assembling and launching facility can be built at Mack Point and that the facility there can achieve Maine’s laudable offshore wind objectives.
According to the University of Maine, the research array intends “to evaluate the floating technology, monitor environmental factors, and develop practices for offshore wind to coexist with traditional marine activities.”
Diamond Offshore Wind owner Mitsubishi has global interests extending far beyond offshore wind (natural gas, mining, chemicals, petroleum). Cianbro is one of the United States’ largest construction companies, operating in states across the country and includes subsidiaries Starcon International Inc., A/Z Corp and R.C Stevens.
MaineDOT acknowledges spending more than $3.6 million as of May 1 on “preliminary engineering” to develop Sears Island. The necessary alternatives analysis has not been completed. The Public Utilities Commission has not yet resumed power purchase agreement negotiations, apparently caught between Diamond and partners wanting the research array’s above-market costs to be borne by ratepayers but the Office of the Public Advocate office wanting the lowest reasonable cost to ratepayers. Significant financial, political power and other resources are behind these entities. And, publicly available site analysis and engineering undertaken to date shows that a robust offshore wind manufacturing, assembling and launching facility can be built at Mack Point and that the facility there can achieve Maine’s laudable offshore wind objectives.
All of this suggests to me an enormous business and political component to the decision by the state to develop Sears Island instead of Mack Point that overshadows the obvious environmental issues. Yet it is environmental and climate change issues that drive this offshore wind initiative. The need for open, transparent public communication could not be greater. Our lives today and the lives of our children depend on it.
