Last week, Gov. John Baldacci introduced a $306 million bond package to allocate funds for infrastructure, economic development, land conservation and energy programs. In another year, this smallish bond package would be considered conservative.

This year, it should be considered conservative, for just one area: offshore wind power.

Offshore wind is slated to receive $7.5 million from the bond, if it’s approved. Of all the targets for the bond funds, this amount seems insufficient.

(What will be more important to Maine over the next three years, the Land for Maine’s Future fund or developing alternative energy sources and industries?)

It gets even smaller when considering the state’s precarious competitive position on it.

Maine has tremendous offshore wind potential and the scientific community to turn it into reality. The University of Maine and the Ocean Energy Institute are examples of in-state resources for offshore wind that are arguably as valuable as the Gulf of Maine itself.

This state could be the “Saudi Arabia of Wind,” as some call it, but this dream gets dimmer as other states – the competition — accelerate offshore energy programs and investments right by Maine, despite its overwhelming coastline potential to outrace them all.

In Massachusetts, the story of Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound is well-known. Yet regardless of its travails, that project is years ahead of anything Maine can offer. The state of Rhode Island has partnered with a company, Deepwater Wind, to develop a $1.5 billion offshore windfarm. Deepwater’s first monitoring towers are set to be built this summer.

New Jersey and Delaware are also pursuing projects. So is South Carolina. Great Lakes states, like Michigan, are also pondering prospects. While these states won’t compete for Maine’s natural resources, they could for its human, professional and funding resources.

Plans for a 5,000-turbine offshore wind farm from the Rockland-based Ocean Energy Institute have circulated with cost estimates as high as $25 billion. Even if this is exaggerated by half, the investment required to capitalize on Maine’s potential promises to be dear.

The $7.5 million from the bond would support an offshore demonstration site for wind energy, run by the university. It is a critical step in determining whether this important energy source, and potential industry, can realize the promise that many believe it has.

Yet this amount is far from a commitment. The potential is here. The talent is here. The political will is here. And the need is here, certainly. Unfortunately, the competition is out there, and it is gaining steam.

Seven-point-five million dollars will get Maine’s toe in the water. Soon, though, it will be time to jump in.