In response to Kate Dempsey’s Dec. 29 column (“2023 brings new chances to invest in Maine’s climate resilience,” Page A5):

We’re sick and tired of gimmicks to make us feel like the Mills administration cares about high electrical costs. We’re tired of filling out forms and groveling before Augusta bureaucrats to keep warm. Will another $450 check, with an accompanying love letter from Gov. Mills, really help?

The cost of electricity has shot up 49 percent recently. Numerous times, Dempsey’s column mentions how Mills’ policies help the “vulnerable.” Do most vulnerable people own their own homes to take advantage of rebates on heat pumps? Can they afford expensive electric cars and take advantage of state-funded rebates and the charging stations being built for them?

And how about those Efficiency Maine rebates? Does that money help low-income Mainers who must rent? How about the elderly, who must figure out how to get and fill out the forms and then install the materials provided? How do we know all that insulation being purchased goes in a home and not Bubba’s ice fishing shack?

If the Mills administration really cares about high energy costs, it should work on providing more cheap, clean hydropower readily available from Canada instead of forcing us to purchase the more expensive energy from so-called renewable sources. Mills should also stop destroying scenic mountaintops and agricultural fields and endangering our coastal fishing industries for renewable-energy generators that are not a cost-effective source of power.

Ted Sirois
Saco

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