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Sprague Energy, which owns the nearby Mack Point terminal in Searsport, is making its own case that the state of Maine's proposed wind port should be located there.
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The environmental group says building offshore wind generation will cut regional electric bills.
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Maine has been exploring the possibility of building an offshore wind port for some time. But with the recent release of its federal grant application, a clearer picture of the plans, the timeline and the cost is coming into focus.
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Up to a dozen floating wind turbine platforms would be located about 30 nautical miles southeast of Portland as part of a project to study the UMaine-developed technology and its interactions with the surrounding environment.
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If approved, the federal grant would cover about two-thirds of the nearly $760 million that the state of Maine estimates it will need to build the port and a heavy-lift semi-submersible barge that's needed to launch the floating wind turbine foundations.
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Two of the sites, encompassing nearly 254,000 acres, are off the Maine coast. The remaining six are located off Massachusetts.
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The measure, which passed the House on Wednesday evening, makes an exception to the state's sand dune protections and will allow the Department of Environmental Protection to consider permit applications for a proposed wind port on Sears Island.
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A new bill seeks to roll back sand dune protections as a way to allow construction of a proposed wind port project on Sears Island.
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The area covers 2 million acres offshore from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, ranging anywhere from 23 to 92 miles off the coast.
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Potential wind energy areas for the Gulf of Maine haven't been finalized. But federal environmental agencies say if development does move ahead in the Gulf, it would occur in an area that's a critical habitat for right whales.