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Get the facts about NECEC

There’s a fair amount of fake news floating around about the New England Clean Energy Connect project. Consider me your fact-checker.

The NECEC will create good jobs for Maine workers. This project means 1,600 direct, high-paying construction jobs for Maine.

Diversifying our energy sources by increasing our supply of hydropower “stiffens the grid” meaning it creates a cushion between demand and generation. It assures an additional source of clean energy for the future of electric vehicles and heat pump replacement of fossil fuel.

Maine is more dependent on petroleum to power our lives than any other state in New England and among the most dependent in the U.S. Out-of-state oil and gas companies like that. I would much prefer Maine homeowners and small businesses be free of over-reliance on any one source of electricity and power, let alone fossil fuels.

One more: The NECEC project is just plain good for Maine. It will deliver clean, low-cost energy to our state, help clean up our air, and protect our forests. It’s difficult to imagine why anyone would oppose this project.

People should get the facts for themselves. Once they do, I think they will agree with me that the NECEC is a good deal for Maine.

Jim Cyr

Auburn

Thoughts about electric vehicles

I would like to suggest an in-depth report on the transition/elimination of gasoline-powered vehicles to electric-powered vehicles. What will be the economic, job displacement and job creation impact?

Instead of battery charging stations along the open highways and roads and city driving, might it be more convenient and faster to have battery exchange stations exchanging/installing a fully charged battery for a battery needing recharging? Otherwise, batteries and vehicles need to be designed to self charge while driving much the same way a laptop or tablet is recharged using a charging cord but can also be used while being charged.

Electric vehicles are competing with only a few minutes to fill up road vehicles’ gas tanks, many of which offer high speed travel within the speed limit or over the speed limit. The more mileage an electric vehicle battery can provide before needing recharge or replacement and the faster recharging or battery exchange can be completed, the more successful electric vehicles might become.

Richard Mackin Jr.

Millinocket

Investing in America

In 2017, the Congressional Budget Office estimated President Donald Trump’s tax legislation would increase the national debt by roughly $2.3 trillion, making the richest people and corporations richer and having no provisions in the bill to repair a road, create a job or tax to pay back this debt. Only Republicans voted for this Act. Most of the tax benefits continue to go to the top income earners.

Since March 2020, American billionaires combined wealth grew by 44.6 percent, meanwhile millions of people lost their jobs. Nearly eight million Americans fell into poverty between June and November 2020. This pain and inequality contributed to the election of President Joe Biden last November.

The Biden American Jobs Plan would invest in America: jobs, repairing dangerous bridges, roads, schools, water systems, clean energy, rural broadband and Made in America factories. This 2021 American infrastructure plan is similar to Republican President Dwight Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway system. This plan also would change the tax code to help pay for these investments.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said April 1 that the GOP would not support Biden’s American Jobs Plan.

What will Sen. Susan Collins do? Will she rubber stamp McConnell’s edict and vote no? She knows of Maine’s many needs.

Pam Person

Orland