CMP project good for Maine
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is proud to support the proposed New England Clean Energy Connect power line from Quebec to Maine for several reasons. The single most important explanation is that the Central Maine Power Co. project will put Mainers to work.
Everyone benefits from investments in energy infrastructure, and that holds true for Maine. The project not only will create good-paying jobs for members during construction, it will make a lasting contribution to the state’s future economic growth.
It’s puzzling to hear that any Maine official stands against an infrastructure project that offers nearly 1,600 construction jobs during peak years of work, plus additional management roles, professional work and indirect employment. All told, the project will support more than 3,000 jobs, and those opportunities will be especially welcome in the rural towns of western Maine.
Beyond jobs, it will provide clean, dependable hydroelectric power for every New England electricity customer. While Massachusetts’ consumers will fund the project to help meet that state’s legally mandated environmental goals, clean air benefits will be good for everybody in the region, including Mainers.
The IBEW is pleased to join the overwhelming majority of host communities who support the project and the many legislative leaders who support a common-sense clean energy project that benefits Maine. This will produce broad benefits for our state’s workers and communities.
Tim Burgess
Business representative
IBEW Local 104
Lewiston
Join climate caucus
I thank both the Bangor and Portland newspapers for reporting regularly on climate science and the economic environmental and human toll of climate change in Maine. The current climate trajectory and its potentially devastating effects are no longer in question. Maine is currently experiencing:
— Ocean acidification which threatens our shellfish;
— Rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine threatening our lobster industry;
— Winter warming putting our winter recreation industry in jeopardy;
— Pests moving northward, threatening our health and our working forests.
Our coastal communities are already facing huge costs to protect against rising sea levels, or to recover from additional flooding during storms. Just 3 feet of sea level rise would put over 20,000 acres under water in towns up and down the coast of Maine.
Climate change is beyond partisan. I ask our congressional representatives to commit to seeking bipartisan solutions with science and economics in mind. A strictly bipartisan group in Congress, the Climate Solutions Caucus, is doing just that. A representative may only join the caucus with a member of the other party. The caucus has grown from 12 to 78 members in just 18 months. Maine’s representatives, despite the state’s interests in such solutions, are not yet on board.
Both Reps. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, and Bruce Poliquin, a Republican, are intelligent, thoughtful and want the best for Maine’s people, economy and environment. Their voices could add a lot to the discussion and help move Congress toward effective action. I call upon them to join the Climate Solutions Caucus together today.
John Rohman
Bangor
Stop bear baiting
Maine’s 15-year game management plan for the four big game species — black bear, deer, moose and turkey — was released at the beginning of May. Two years in the making, the public has until June 15 to weigh in on it.
The plan is divided into four sections for the four big game species. The first species to be addressed is the black bear, and on page 28 of the plan, it states,“Data collected by this program shows that the presence of bait does not significantly impact the health or reproduction of bears at a population level or lead to increased human-bear conflicts.”
How about the study titled “Synchronous Reproduction by Maine Black Bears” conducted by state wildlife biologists of reproduction by black bears in three dissimilar Maine areas from 1982 to 1991, which concluded that “Black bear reproduction is influenced in a density-independent manner by the abundance, diversity, and quality of food sources”?
There is a second study titled “Alternate Year Beechnut Production and its Influence on Bear and Marten Populations” conducted by state wildlife biologists from 1982 to 2004, which chronicled an unmistakable link between years of plentiful beechnut production (even-numbered years) and increased female bear fertility.
Are we to believe that a fatty crop like beechnuts can increase female bear reproduction but a high-fat food like doughnuts cannot?
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is contemplating a spring bear hunt to reduce their numbers. How about ending the bear feeding program in this state?
Val Philbrick
Scarborough
Palm oil marketplace
Most people wouldn’t knowingly support the decimation of some of the most endangered species on the planet, yet many of us do just that when we shop. A ubiquitous ingredient, palm oil, makes its way into everything: detergents, toothpastes, soaps, shampoos, cosmetics and a variety of packaged foods such as bread, chocolate, margarine, cereal, cookies, ice cream, crackers and chips. It’s largely responsible for the rapid decline of Sumatran rhinos, tigers, orangutans, Asian elephants and countless other species. Half the global orangutan population alone has been wiped out in just the past 16 years.
Tropical rainforests and carbon-rich peatland are cleared to make way for oil palm plantations, pushing species to the brink of extinction, destroying watershed and forest resources on which locals depend, and exacerbating climate change by pumping CO2 into the atmosphere.
With palm oil imports to the United States growing by 485 percent in the last decade, it’s vital we make better choices. Lives literally depend on it.
Palm oil is disguised under many names. Some, like vegetable oil, sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate and vitamin A palmitate, may or may not be derived solely from palm oil. I urge you to contact companies employing these ingredients. If they use palm oil, let them know you won’t support them until they become more responsible. These ingredients are even used by “eco-friendly” companies. They may respond to you with talk about sustainable palm oil, but as you research this topic, you will find that sustainable palm oil may not truly exist.
Rebecca Tripp
Searsport