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FDR's brief dip into tidal energy
Eastport, a city of about 1,600 people that is about as down east in Maine as you can get, has seen better days. At one point in its history it was the sardine capital of the East, but overfishing and resulting catch restrictions led to that industry's long slow death. The old canneries along the shore are shuttered and decaying, and the last one in the region–indeed, in the country–about 50 miles to the southeast in Prospect Harbor, closed just last week.
Now, as I write in Thursday's Business of Green section, a start-up company, Ocean Renewable Power, is hoping to bring some economic renewal to Eastport with a tidal energy project. Their goal is to install underwater turbines that would spin in the tidal currents, generating power. The company is one of a handful in the United States working to develop tidal power as another alternative to fossil-fuel plants.