Business & Development

What a difference a few years can make. Five years ago, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) debate was raging Downeast, as three proposals for Passamaquoddy Bay were moving forward, along with the Canaport LNG development in Saint John.

A spanking new white fiberglass research boat was berthed at the Eastport breakwater's inner basin during the week of February 25. The Tidewater was awaiting departure for the last leg of its voyage to its new owner, the William and Mary College Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

The investment company that is revitalizing the mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket is now poised to convert a former herring processing factory site in Eastport into a facility that will use waste wood from Maine's forests to make a clean fuel replacement for coal that will be shipped...

The former Louisiana-Pacific OSB mill in Baileyville has been redeveloped into a high-capacity natural gas fueling complex that will be serving Maine industries and businesses from paper mills to food processing plants and hospitals and helping them save significantly on fuel costs.

The Eastport Port Authority expects to continue on its recent upward trajectory, with a 2013 budget that will be nearly double the port authority's revenue in 2006.

"We're still getting our footing," says Victor Trafford who, together with his wife Judy, owns Lubec's Wharf Direct seafood buying operation. Wharf Direct currently purchases lobsters, periwinkles and crabs from local fishermen and also serves as an offloading point for sea cucumbers and scallops.