Atticus Biswell plays in a display of 100 windmills, during an event organized by Oceana Maine to promote the use of off shore windmills for sustainable energy and job creation. Each miniature turbine represented the estimated 10,000 that could be created by offshore clean power initiatives. Photo by Greta Rybus

The international ocean conservation group, Oceana, urged investment in offshore wind power projects in place of expanded offshore oil drilling to create jobs while protecting coastal communities and ecosystems from the dangers of another offshore oil spill disaster.

Last fall, Oceana organizers and volunteers unveiled a demonstration wind farm in Deering Oaks Park with 100 miniature wind turbine replicas capturing wind energy.

Each turbine represented a major offshore oil spill that has occurred in US waters in the last 25 years – spills that killed countless marine life, destroyed thousands of jobs, cost billions of dollars to clean up and caused irreversible damage to the environment.

Georgia Hopkins-Lyle plays with a windmill she received at Oceana Maine’s “Wind Mills Not Oil Spills” even in Deering Oaks Park on October 15th. “Hopefully when she’s older, we won’t be dependant on oil,” said her dad, Andrew. Each windmill represented one major oil spill in the last 25 years, as well as 10,000 jobs that could be created by offshore wind production. Photo by Greta Rybus

Each turbine also symbolized 10,000 clean American jobs, collectively representing the more than one million construction and manufacturing jobs that could be created by fully investing in offshore wind power on the Atlantic coast.

Organizers encouraged local residents to display their own Oceana lawn wind turbines at their homes, to show the groundswell of support for transitioning from a dirty energy past to a clean energy future.