Ban corporate contributions to candidates, PACs

Considering how strong our election and campaign finance laws are, it is mind-boggling to me that Maine still allows corporations to make political contributions. Currently there is a bill in the current legislature to fix this.

The Maine legislature has the chance to eliminate one reckless, direct source of influence and that is by banning corporate contributions to candidates and PACs. LD 1417 has been introduced by Sen. Louis Luchini, and it should become law.

Maine’s Clean Election candidates do not receive corporate money, but the state currently allows this in privately funded candidate races. Many other states already bar corporations from making these types of contributions, so Maine will not break new ground with this law.

All Mainers should be confident that big business interests are not able to use political contributions to gain access to, exert influence over, or receive favorable treatment from the people who represent us in Augusta. It’s time to ban corporate contributions for good.

Louise Janelle,
West Bath

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Support ‘carbon cash back’ initiative

My grandson is 15. He’ll turn 94 in the year 2100. Sitting in a rocking chair on his porch enjoying the clean air that year, I hope he’ll be able to read in a history book about a groundbreaking year: 2021, the year the United States government finally implemented a robust climate policy that quickly lowered the carbon pollution our country was pouring into the atmosphere.

Nolan will have spent his life in a warmer world due to the greenhouse gases we humans have already released, but he will know that things could have been much worse had not his grandfather’s generation set up a policy nicknamed “carbon cash back” which put a steadily increasing fee on fossil fuels. With the help of other policies too, this economy-wide measure quickly brought U.S. emissions down to net zero by 2050. Not only did it jumpstart the clean energy revolution that was already getting under way. It gave a helpful boost to most middle and lower income folks.

The bill innovatively returned 100% of the money collected (net of expenses) to all Americans equally. They could spend it however they wanted. The payments covered the increased costs of the clean energy transition for 85% of American households, and was particularly helpful to people of color and the poor, who stood to lose the most from climate change.

Other measures were needed of course. New agricultural practices were implemented early in the century too, thanks to effective legislation sponsored by a Maine Representative named Chellie Pingree. Methane emissions got reduced. Improvements in energy storage that made solar and wind more viable resulted from a bill sponsored by a Maine Senator named Susan Collins. Maine Sen. Angus King served with her on the Senate’s Climate Solutions Caucus, relentlessly reminding everyone that there was no silver bullet that would solve climate change. Instead, silver buckshot was needed in spades.

But as over 3,500 economists had predicted, it was primarily the carbon cashback policy that sped up the transition and averted climate disaster. HR 2307 was the bill number.

Sam Saltonstall,
Brunswick

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