It’s difficult to try to name the most inept, anti-business move Paul LePage made while governor, but forcing energy giant Statoil (now called Equinor) to take its investment in offshore wind energy to Scotland, instead of investing in Maine’s waters, must be a contender.
Maine lost jobs and private investments and the potential to be a center of global research in clean energy. Statoil created Hywind Scotland instead, the world’s first floating offshore wind farm. They cited “political uncertainty” to describe LePage’s interference in the existing agreement the state had made with the company.
At the time, Sen. Angus King stated that the Statoil proposal had presented Maine with 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.”
LePage’s lack of vision and bias against renewable energy cost all of us.
Mary Ann Larson
Cumberland
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