Maine’s winter prosperity
As a two-time Olympic gold medal winning snowboarder who loves Maine’s winter and the outdoors, it was heartening to see Sen. Susan Collins acknowledge, in a recent Senate vote, that climate change is real and that mankind is having a significant influence upon it.
The evidence keeps piling up; 2014 was the hottest year ever on record globally and 14 of the 15 warmest years have occurred since 2000, a new federal report found. These warming temperatures are taking a toll on snowpack in Maine’s mountains and an important part of Maine’s economy, the winter sports industry. One study showed that in low snowfall years from 1999 to 2010, skier and snowboarder visits to Maine dropped 14 percent while ski resort revenues fell $27 million and 329 fewer people were employed at those resorts.
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a solution to help protect our climate by limiting, for the first time, carbon pollution from power plants, which is fueling climate change.
I hope Collins will help the EPA get those limits in place, for the sake of Maine’s prosperity and the future of winter.
Seth Wescott
Carrabassett Valley
‘Contorted outrage’
The Feb. 9 post by Matthew Gagnon on his BDN blog Pine Tree Politics ” All the nuance of a brick to the face,” has left this reader amused by Gagnon’s contorted outrage over Professor Amy Fried’s so-called “cherry picking,” as if she is the only one out there in the blogosphere capable taking others at their word. It’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.
I think Mr. Gagnon was hoisted by his own petard rather than hit with a brick to the face and am grateful the BDN sees fit to host Fried’s commentary.
Larry Sweet
Hulls Cove
Unsafe at any speed
On my last trip to Ellsworth, the day after the last storm, on slick roads, I witnessed the following: Unsafe passing, speeding, tailgating, cell phone use, texting, illegal lane changes, running a red light (three instances), driving the wrong way on a one way street, failure to yield, distracted driving, the list goes on.
If we wonder why the world is coming unstuck, we need only look in the mirror. Welcome to the new barbarism, in which law and common sense are optional. If anything goes, nothing works.
Henry Smith
Sorrento
$137 crosswalk ripoff
Some people have been hurt by cars while crossing streets at designated crosswalks, so the Bangor Police plan to fine pedestrians who do not use designated crosswalks when crossing a street $137. What a ripoff.
Bangor Police policy requires use of a crosswalk if one is available, but at what distance does a crosswalk become available? Sometimes crosswalks are a long distance apart, such as an entire long block. Are those available, or not? Does each policeman decide on the spot whether or not a crosswalk is available?
The city of Bangor’s Article VII: Motorist and Pedestrian Safety, SS 291-63 Crosswalks, reads “Pedestrians crossing any public way must yield to all traffic unless they are within a crosswalk.”
The above, based on state statute, indicates that crossing streets other than at crosswalks is and must always be at the pedestrian’s own risk, so the practice should not be cause for a fine. It often motivates me to move faster than usual, so it’s good exercise. The practice of fining people $137 for crossing between crosswalks is ridiculous and should stop immediately or not get started.
Sen. Amy Volk’s bill to make drivers stop and not start moving again until the pedestrian who has passed in front of their stopped car reaches the other side of the street does not make a lot of sense. There must be a law of physics that prevents pedestrians from being hit by a car that begins moving after they have passed in front of it while it was stopped, when they are no longer in front of it but continuing on to the other side of the street. I hope our lawmakers use common sense on this bill.
Paul Bouchard
Orrington