Gov. LePage’s skepticism about and opposition to solar and other forms of renewable energy are well known, as he has promoted strategies for what he believes are “reduced energy costs,” often based on the continued use of fossil fuels.

The pushback by many in the Maine Republican Party to the proposed solar plan was publicized in the March 31 Portland Press Herald, in an editorial that reported, “Republicans claim it (the proposed solar plan) is unacceptable because it could add 20 cents to an average monthly electric bill.”

Also in the March 31 Press Herald was the news story “Forecast doubles rate of sea level rise” (Page A2), which reports a scientific study that predicts more than 6 feet of sea level rise in this century and dramatic sea level rise beyond this century.

My questions to Gov. LePage and Maine Republicans are these:

1) Are you calculating the environmental costs faced by Maine over the coming decades because of rising sea level, loss of waterfront property and infrastructure, and possible loss of Maine fisheries related directly to the burning of fossil fuels and the associated global warming gases that are pumped into the atmosphere?

2) If you are estimating these costs, would you share them with the people of Maine and show the total cost of fossil fuel usage compared with the option of clean, renewable energy?

Bruce Cole

Rockport

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