Next-generation forest products
I urge Maine lawmakers to pass LD 1698, a production tax credit for products made from renewable resources instead of fossil fuels.
Petroleum-replacement products derived from wood are going to play a big role in the new forest economy. Hundreds of millions of dollars in research and commercialization have been spent globally in this product sector in the last two decades.
Our Katahdin, re-developer of the former Great Northern Paper Mill Site in Millinocket, is talking with a number of companies that are scouring the country for locations to build a biorefinery. Maine has many assets that are attractive to these companies. With the Forest Bioproducts Research Institute at the University of Maine, our 17 million acres of forests, and residuals from our diverse wood products industry, we have the research infrastructure and the low-grade fiber supply required to support a robust bioproducts industry.
But Maine is in competition with other regions of the country, some of which have lower wood costs. It is essential to create public policy that supports this emerging industry, as it has the potential to bring hundreds of millions of dollars in capital investment to Maine, utilize millions of tons of our fiber and employ thousands of our workers.
Biorefineries create high-value products from a low-value resource, much like paper mills. For communities like Millinocket that have been devastated from the decline of the paper industry, next-generation forest products will be essential to attract new workers, expand their tax base and restore their culture.
Steve Sanders
Director of mill site redevelopment
Our Katahdin
Millinocket
Connect the climate dots
Media outlets and governments around the globe are beginning to change their language to reflect the most recent scientific climate predictions. Much of what is now known about the time frame of species extinction, stronger storms, rising sea levels, etc., amounts to a looming catastrophe. The Guardian newspaper has begun to name this a climate crisis as opposed to the more neutral term “climate change“ or the overly simplistic “global warming.” Some, like the United Kingdom, have adopted the term “ climate emergency.”
I am pleased to see how the Bangor Daily News has improved and increased its coverage of this serious danger in 2019. At an April 30 conference about covering climate change, co-sponsored by The Nation and the Columbia Journalism Review, TV newsman Bill Moyers called for moral courage in media coverage of the earth’s threatened climate. He urged journalists to talk about it like Edward R. Murrow reported on the rise of fascism during the ramp up to World War II in spite of the understandable resistance of the American audience to hearing more bad news during the Great Depression.
Similarly, Maine residents need to see the climate issue for what it is before we can take steps to deal with it. Awareness is the first step. The vital role of the press is to inform and educate the electorate. But also to connect the dots.
Haydee Foreman
Blue Hill
Expand ranked-choice voting
Our beloved Maine comprises a forward-looking and earnest population that includes citizens and legislators who’ve worked mightily over the past five years to pass ranked-choice voting into law.
On one ballot, a voter’s truly desired candidates are ranked in order of preference so that candidates of all persuasions have a fair chance to win a majority of votes. Maine is the first to make this courageous change in our election laws. Our 2018 election clearly demonstrated successfully and effectively ranked-choice voting for the first time.
Yet, there is still more law-making to accomplish so that all voters are empowered to become full participants in an authentic representative democracy on all levels of governance. As the law reads now, we voters can rank our choices for U.S. senators and U.S. representatives but not U.S. president.
As we near the end of this current legislative session, it is crucial that we contact our district representatives in the Maine House now to express support for LD 1083, An Act To Implement Ranked-Choice Voting for Presidential Primary and General Elections in Maine, because this may be our last chance for such a bill, if passed any time in the next few weeks, to improve our voting system in Maine in time for the 2020 presidential election.
Sidney Mitchell
Dover-Foxcroft