Sixteen miles of pipeline – nearly all pipe at the Prudhoe Bay oil field on the Beaufort Sea – is so corroded it will have to be replaced. The job could take months, guaranteed to force up energy costs just as we’re preparing to enter the heating season.

The Prudhoe Bay site, which now accounts for about 8 percent of our nation’s daily crude oil production, was developed in the 1970s. It was done in conjunction with the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline, used to transport the crude for ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobile and BP, among other companies, to the port city of Valdez.

If 16 miles of pipe has corroded, it is not a stretch to imagine that the same problems could be found along any one of the 800 miles of pipeline stretching across Alaska, weakening the pipeline that moves an estimated 2 million barrels of crude oil each day.

The corrosion is not a catastrophe; the pipeline can be repaired. It is, however, a startling warning that the nation’s aging crude oil infrastructure is not built to last forever.

It is also proof that we – our government and private industry – have not been aggressive enough in protecting what crude infrastructure we have. But protecting that infrastructure is just not enough. We must also find alternate sources of energy and we must conserve energy.

In the time it will take to repair the pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, the wind farm at Mars Hill Mountain should be producing power for Mainers. We sincerely hope that the proposed 30-turbine wind farm project at Redington Pond Range and Black Nubble Mountain will be approved and site work with all efforts to minimize environmental damage begun, boosting the number of New England’s active wind power plants.

Approving and constructing clean energy sources beats the alternative, which is continued expansion of deep sea oil drilling along the Gulf of Mexico, in Alaska and – perhaps eventually – along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Pete Didisheim of the Natural Resources Council of Maine recently told The Associated Press that wind projects across New England have gotten bogged down during the permitting process and developers have pulled their proposals in frustration. He said he sees the industry as “a sort of hurry-up-and-wait” deal.

The situation at Prudhoe Bay kicks that attitude in the pants. We can’t wait any more. The “hurry” stage has arrived.

The pipeline corrosion at Prudhoe Bay was discovered after the U.S. Department of Transportation ordered an inspection following a 270,000-gallon spill on the North Slope. There have been other spills and there will be more.

At some point, the cost to collect and distribute crude will flatten the economy and create an ever-more unimaginable struggle for energy.

In testifying before the Land Use Regulation Commission last week, former Gov. Angus King – an environmentalist and a realist – supported the Redington/Black Nubble proposal.

“When I see the wind turbines from the top of this mountain, I will say, ‘We – the state of Maine – are doing something real to deal with one of the (serious) issues in Maine.'”

He’s right.

Maine, which enjoys leading the nation on many fronts, must take this opportunity to step deeper into a future of alternative energy. If not, we are merely contributors to the problem of oil spills, rotting pipeline and rising fuel costs.