Finnegan for Rep.
I am voting for Larry Finnegan for state representative and I urge voters in District 33 to vote for him, too. Anyone who has met Larry Finnegan as he tirelessly makes the rounds knocking on doors to meet residents and listen to their concerns recognizes his energy and desire to improve Washington County life for young, middle-aged and old.
Larry Finnegan’s experience is broad and patriotic. He served in the U.S. Navy, worked as a computer analyst and geographer and owned a small greenhouse and landscape business. Larry understands Maine’s economy must grow to improve the climate for business, fishing, farming and forests.
With his wife, Dianne, a former teacher and now a member of Jonesport’s school board, he has an informed awareness of how rural schools must achieve better funding. Larry was elected president of the Machias Rotary Club, he was a grant writer and organizer for Keepers of Moose Peak Lighthouse and he serves on the board of directors of UMM’s Sunrise Senior College. He runs Jonesport’s Food Pantry and even delivers to homebound senior housing residents. He does volunteer tax preparation.
In short, he understands that our county’s hardworking majority needs progressive thinking and action to improve our lives, whether the improvement is affordable health care, a stronger business climate or making our area attractive enough to retrain and retain its younger and middle-aged population while serving the elderly. With Larry Finnegan representing us our long dormant Washington County economy will, indeed, re-bloom.
Etta C. Abrahams
Jonesport
Revenue shifts
Lately, when talking to private foundations about funding the goals of Mainely Girls, which include awareness, prevention and connecting to treatment those with eating disorders in our state, I’m asked, “Shouldn’t the government be paying for some of this?”
The government should be, but over the past 30 years there has been a steady shifting of funding responsibility of the public and onto private shoulders. Thus today, combating eating disorders is just one of many public efforts that deserve state and federal government support but aren’t receiving it.
One cause of this shift is a reduction in tax revenue, especially from our wealthiest households and most profitable corporations. While income and wealth have become more and more concentrated in recent years, contributions from this economic elite to the public good have declined in relative terms.
We have a chance to reverse this regrettable trend at the end of this year. That’s when Congress can decide to end tax breaks for the 2 percent of American households that make over $250,000 a year and use the resulting hundreds of billions of dollars a year in tax revenue to pay down debt and strengthen programs that support the middle class. (Middle income tax cuts should continue.)
U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins can be leaders in this process. By convincing their colleagues in the upcoming debate to support more equitable taxes on the wealthy, they can begin to shift public responsibilities back into public hands, where they primarily belong.
Mary Orear
Rockport
Crude prices
Recently the crude oil prices have been going down, according to the news. While the crude prices have been going down the price at the pumps has been going up. I think someone has to retake math — just today the news says the crude price dropped $1.39, yet the retail price jumped 11 cents. This doesn’t quite add up. Here we are being ripped off again. This seems to be a never ending battle for the consumer. I feel this is a problem that needs to be addressed by our elected officials.
Warren Gay
Machias
Lewiston CareerCenter
Contrary to the assumptions made in the Sun Journal editorial that was picked up by the BDN on Sept. 19, regarding the job fair at the Lewiston CareerCenter on Sept. 17, the Lewiston CareerCenter does offer return bus passes for anyone using the CareerCenter for job search or training activities. If someone was at the fair, and used the bus to get to the center, he or she could have asked the front desk staff for a free return pass.
People who receive general assistance from Lewiston and Auburn are required to attend work-search workshops at the Lewiston CareerCenter to maintain their general assistance eligibility. They should be familiar with the services that the CareerCenter provides, including the free bus pass and events such as job fairs. People who attend workshops also have the opportunity to network and carpool.
The Lewiston CareerCenter sponsors several networking groups and encourages job seekers to build relationships with other people in similar circumstances in order to provide mutual support and encouragement.
To ensure that the CareerCenter is reaching out to the widest possible audience, it works with agencies that serve job seekers with barriers to employment, offering additional resources for those job seekers. For example, the CareerCenter staff runs job search and resume workshops at the Auburn Public Library, communicate regularly with the adult education programs and general assistance offices, regularly offer WorkReady trainings through the adult education programs and work with the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate job search activities.
Julie Rabinowitz
Director of communication
Maine Department of Labor
Augusta
Penny wise, pound foolish
Those old-adages make a lot of sense — and “penny wise and pound foolish” fits today’s Maine Legislature. You can cut people off Medicaid, but you can’t stop them from being sick. This governor and his rubber-stamp legislators think they’re saving the state money by cutting people off Medicaid but it only shifts costs.
Without Medicaid, people seek medical attention in the emergency room — a much more expensive alternative. Hospitals pass increased costs on those with insurance. Fewer people can keep up with the increased premiums, so they cancel their health insurance policies. So now there are even more people using emergency rooms for primary care. As this cycle continues, how long do you suppose it will be before health insurance becomes so costly that only the rich can afford it?
Make sure that in November, you vote for people who have a whit of common sense — people like Brian Jones, who’s running for the Legislature in District 45. He’s a husband, a father, a volunteer firefighter, a town selectman and a math teacher. He’ll make sure the numbers add up instead of rubber stamping the governor’s agenda.
Diane Hull
Unity
Mary Orear, Dianne Hull: good letters.
Warren Gay, crude oil is an internationally traded commodity with the price set by the international buyers and speculators.. The price of refined gasoline depends on the ability of US refiners to process and deliver the finished product. There has been a need for new refineries for a couple of decades. The recent fire at a refinery in California immediately caused the price of gasoline to increase in spite of the US producing the most oil in ten years.
Most of Maines gasoline is refined in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada by Irving Oil LTD.. It doesn’t matter what the label on the trucks say, they are loading up at Irving Tank farms. There is no shortage of oil nor is there a shortage of greed.
True, but the shutting of any refinery on this continent is an excuse for the oil companies to gouge the consumer. Remember when Katrina hit New Orleans gas went up here although we get our supply from Canada.
Petroleum products are priced on the world market in U.S.dollars. if the price rises in New Orleans the gas jump is felt in Tel Aviv
Capitalists love globalism. allows then to deflect blame..
Hmmm. Since that’s the case our elected officials have even less to do with fuel pricing than what they already do (which is nil).
The pols something to do with the pricing in that they turn a blind eye to the gouging that the distributors do to us. IMO gasoline should be regulated just like utilities are.
Bring on Venezuela? Remember the last time the Feds meddled with the fuel supply? Maybe you’re too young to remember the Nixon gas rationing?
Nope, I remember it all too well. It broke my asperations of being an owner operator of a truck. Took me 5 years to dig out of that hole. That was a total BS money grab by the oil companies then as it is now. They had super tankers circling off the New Jersey and Delaware shores waiting to get to the refineries. They couldn’t refine any more because they didn’t have room in their storage tanks.
The gas lines and so called shortage was smoke and mirrors to keep us distracted about Watergate.
I am not sure how old you are, but regulation was tried back in the 70’s which resulted in very long gas lines.
Printing more dollars weakens the dollar causing the price to go higher at the pumps
With all due respect Maine has plenty of domesticly refined fuel. The Revere refinary in Massachusetts (owned by Sun Oil), and the two New Jersey refinaries in Elizabeth and Bayonne (run by Humble/Magnolia for ExxonMobil) supply many of those tanks you see when passing South Portland on Interstate 95.
Standard Oil of New York (later Mobil) cornered the New England market long before there was an Irving.
With all due respect, Irving Oil Ltd. owns the Revere tank farm.
The US is also Exporting more gasoline than it has in years. Last year the US was a net Exporter of gasoline. Remember the US HAS NO OIL, we sell leases of oilfields to companies (mostly foreign) for the privaledge of extracting oil. That oil now belongs to BP, Statoil, Chevron, etc. they refine it then sell it to the highest bidder on the open market. If China will pay more for gasoline made from Gulf oil then guess what, that gas is going to China.
Now almost all other oil producing countries have a State Owned oil company (Norway-Statoil, Brazil-Petrobras, Russia-Gazprom, Saudi Arabia-Saudi Aramco, etc.). The US has no National Oil Company, ,hence the US has no oil! to have a national oil company would be tantamount to Socialism!
First you say the United States was a net exporter of oil. Then you turn right around and claim the United States has no oil. Now, I wish we could kick Texas out of the union because of that state’s ridiculous idea of justice, but the last time I checked, Texas was part of the United States, as is the territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico, and the territorial waters off the coast of California.
No I said we were a net exporter of refined product, and you are correct it is not “our” gas we are selling. Do you see income from oil/gas sales in the treasury? No, only from the sale of leases. The refined product that is sold from the US refineries belongs to the companies that purchased the lease. Imagine you owned all of Roxanne Quimby’s land. And you decided to log it all off and sell the logs to China. The state of Maine would be a net exportewr of logs, but the state would recieve no benefit from them, as they belonged to Ryan Robbins. The kicker with the oil is that you would at least pay tax to the state on the income. The oil companies (mostly foriegn) don’t pay anything.
The U.S. is exporting gasoline because Canadians currently have no refinaries which can handle the tar sands extractions. Those refinaries are ALL in the USA. Canadian oil is providing employment in the US, but the gas is a pass-through commodity.
Astute observation,
But remember, all of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico (US territorial waters) is being refined there as well. This is oil that was sold to companies (many of them foreign) via the oil field lease system.
Mary,as I commend you on your cause.These girls do need your help. Where does it say that the government should fund this?
Warren Gay
The reason for the volatility in gas and oil prices is directly related to the actions of special intrest groups. Because of the NIMBYs and CAVES (citizens against virtually everything), there has not been a new significant oil refinery built in almost thirty years.
You see the effects of this at the pumps, in your heating oil tank, and soon with the blockage of the natural gas facility proposed downeast, in the gaslines.
When adjusted for inflation, gas is about where it should be. It is the total failure of wages to keep pace with inflation over the last 20 years that make it seem much more expensive. There are no gas lines, so I would say that our drilling and refining is keeping pace with the demand.
Why isn’t it the failure of government to control inflation?
Pricing of fuel at the pump is more complicated than crude+ refining and transportation = price. There are insurance expenses. there is the fact that world-wide oil prices are based on the U.S. dollar which has been in free-fall since 9/11. There is the China factor which is thatr that nation is buying up all excess oil around the world at a higher price than U.S. refinat=ries are willinbg to pay. There is the cost of labor (at refinaries and on the road) which is rising. In addition there is the realization that Obama has already fired his shotgun load by releasing oil from the stratigic reserves. He can not do that again before the election.
As to why there have been no refinaries built in the USA lately, that is because labor costs are cheaper elsewhere. There are several refinaries which have all their permits but are in mothballs because it is not economically sound to open them at this time.
As the link and the paragraph below indicate, speculation adds as much as 40% to the price of a gallon of gasoline. And speculation adds no value to the process; it’s a form of legalized gambling by Wall Street.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/28/opinion/sanders-gas-speculation/index.html
Even those inside the oil industry have admitted that speculation is driving up the price of gasoline. The CEO of Exxon-Mobil, Rex Tillerson, told a Senate hearing last year that speculation was driving up the price of a barrel of oil by as much as 40%. The general counsel of Delta Airlines, Ben Hirst, and the experts at Goldman Sachs also said excessive speculation is causing oil prices to spike by up to 40%. Even Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter of oil in the world, told the Bush administration back in 2008, during the last major spike in oil prices, that speculation was responsible for about $40 of a barrel of oil.