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If you’re worried about the cost of electricity, think twice before voting for Paul LePage. LePage seemingly never met a renewable energy bill he liked. Increased use of renewables will help us escape burdensome electricity rates, caused mostly by the high cost of the natural gas still used to generate most of our electricity.
While governor, LePage forced energy giant, Statoil, to take its investment in off-shore wind energy to Scotland instead of investing in Maine’s waters. Statoil created “Hywind Scotland,” the world’s first floating offshore wind farm. They cited “uncertainty” to describe LePage’s interference in its existing agreement with the state. Sen. Angus King said Statoil’s proposal gave Maine a “once-in-a-hundred year opportunity to become a global leader in an emerging energy field that would … grow our state’s economy for years to come.”
We are literally paying today for LePage’s backward thinking.
Roger Katz, a Republican state senator during LePage’s time in Augusta, reflecting on LePage’s two terms as governor, said LePage “was unable to sit down with well-meaning people in both parties and listen and compromise and try to get to middle ground.”
I believe Matt Dunlap is the antidote to the kind of politics that LePage practices. If we want the U.S. Congress working to create a better future for all of us, I believe we need to elect Dunlap to represent the people of Maine’s 2nd Congressional District because we can’t afford more of LePage.
Mary Ann Larson
Bangor