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Ken Elowe of Bristol is a retired director of the Bureau of Fish and Wildlife Resource Management at the Maine Department. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
As a registered independent with a long history in Maine government, I had many chances to work with Maine’s delegation, including Sen. Susan Collins. I voted for her over several election cycles. But things have changed, and the challenges faced by people and businesses in Maine have changed. I believe Collins has changed also.
Maine’s economy, culture, traditions, and recreation has its foundation in natural resources. From commercial fishing, farming, timber management, sawmills, paper mills, recreational fishing, hunting and guiding, and historic sporting lodges, our coastal, inland, and rural businesses statewide are rooted in the amazing natural resources that we have and share.
These natural resource businesses are solid ways to make a living, but at times, operate on narrow economic margins. Changes to markets or operating costs can quickly shrink those margins and cause different business decisions. We saw this when changes happened to Maine’s paper industries, with mills separating from their traditional timberlands. I believe we are on the threshold of major challenges again for our foundational industries.
The high cost of diesel fuel is a major challenge for those heating their homes with oil. It is likewise a major economic challenge for the timber industries, which rely on diesel fuel for logging operations, trucking, and sawmills. Likewise, farm equipment runs on diesel, and most lobster and other fishing vessels also depend on diesel fuel. High fuel costs are reducing operating margins. With tariffs impacting equipment, parts, and product markets, operating margins are reduced even more.
These industries provide jobs all across the rural landscapes of the state. Hard economic decisions made necessary by high fuel costs and tariffs will likely cause loss of jobs in areas that have few alternatives. But the present challenges of high diesel fuel costs and tariffs are not due soley to global shifts in manufacturing or competitive economics. They are worsened by national policies that created antagonistic tariff and trade relations with long-time allies and a war with Iran that created the present high oil prices and does not seem to have an easy or smooth way out.
All across the country, people that hunt, fish, camp, and recreate on private lands commonly do so while paying large lease sums for the privilege. Maine, and much of New England, has a culture and tradition of respectful use of private lands. Our forests are the foundation of our wood economies and also our recreational economies, culture and traditions. These privileges are not guaranteed, and a large-scale change to landowners that do not have a history of Maine’s traditions may greatly shift available jobs in logging, sawmills and the recreational sectors.
Sen. Collins may be successful in bringing some project dollars to Maine. But we are breaking new ground with the current administration. Collins has enabled and I believe is complicit in the one-sided decisions impacting our foundational economies and traditions.
Her position as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee should afford her the ability to leverage other Republicans to stand up against unilateral decisions being made by this administration. She is, as a senior senator and chair of a powerful committee, more than only one vote. If she truly is as effective as she claims, I believe Collins should be able to leverage pressure to rein in this administration. She has not, and continually falls back on the excuse of being only one vote, as she seemingly will not help take back the role of Congress as a co-equal branch of government.
Our citizens, economy, jobs, culture and traditions are being stressed. We need someone that will help shift the balance and give Congress back to us as a functional and equal branch of government. I believe it is time to elect Troy Jackson, for the sake of Maine and the nation.