The Mills administration is taking the next step to advance its selection of Sears Island as a hub for Maine’s floating offshore wind industry by proposing legislation to allow construction in a coastal sand dune system.

A conservation group that opposes the Sears Island decision says the legislation could circumvent a potentially lengthy permitting process.

Gov. Janet Mills is asking the Legislature to authorize the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to grant a permit under the Natural Resources Protection Act for an offshore wind terminal “notwithstanding any provision of law regarding activities in coastal sand dune systems to the contrary” if other permitting and licensing criteria are met.

The 100-acre site Mills selected in Searsport was one of several considered in a more than two-year review. A portion of the site is on land that the state Department of Transportation has reserved for development.

Paul Merrill, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the parcel includes a sand dune system dating to the 1980s or 1990s that was created after an artificial jetty was built.

Merrill said the site was selected for an offshore wind port because it can “practicably meet the needs of an offshore wind port” that will yield substantial economic and environmental benefits for Maine.

A Sears Island terminal would be the receiving site for wind turbine gear components such as towers, turbines and blades, according to a November 2021 study for the state.

Mill’s proposal under L.D. 2266 would authorize the Department of Environmental Protection to evaluate and approve an application for an offshore wind terminal if  “all other stringent permitting and licensing criteria are met,” Merrill said in an email.

Rolf Olsen, vice president of the board of Friends of Sears Island, which believes a port should be built on Mack Point, across Long Cove, said the move “looks like a legislative solution to a permitting issue.”

“The area is not readily permitted for industrial development,” he said.

Olsen also criticized a “very short turnaround” for consideration of the legislation, which will be the subject of a public hearing scheduled for Monday by the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

The other two-thirds of the proposed site are in a permanent conservation easement held by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

Friends of Sears Island manages the conserved part of the island and has warned that if a wind port is built on Sears Island, land will be cleared, graded and compacted. And the removal of earth will permanently affect marine habitat, the group says.

The governor’s office, the governor’s Energy Office and the Department of Transportation all are working with lawmakers to draft an amendment that protects naturally occurring sand dunes on the Department of Transportation land by enrolling them into the conservation easement, Merrill said.

State officials believe the permitting process, even if altered by Mills’ bill, will show that the Sears Island site is the “least environmentally damaging practicable alternative,” he said.

“It is the intent of the state of Maine to minimize to the greatest extent possible development of the parcel we own, to discourage any development not related to offshore wind and preserve and protect the pristine character of the remaining two-thirds of the island with the easement held in trust,” Merrill said.

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