Maybe the sign as people enter Maine should read, “Open for business … done the governor’s way.”
Maine residents have known for some time now that the governor is a foul-mouthed bully who acts out his my-way-or-the-highway philosophy regularly in Augusta. Now, it seems that he is not such a smart businessman either.
By manipulating the legislative process in the last days of the recent session, he was successful in undermining a contract with Norwegian oil company Statoil to conduct a wind energy project off the coast of Maine. In other words he thumbed Maine’s nose at some of the billion dollars that is expected to be spent over the next few years around the world in off-shore wind technology.
That money could have come to Maine in the form of new jobs in a growing industry. Officials at the University of Maine compared the opportunity to attract a company such as Statoil to Maine to bringing a Google or GM to Maine. For Paul LePage, though, getting his own way trumps what is in the state’s best interest. He doesn’t like wind energy, so the state loses.
Does anyone still like Paul LePage? How much worse does it need to get? How many more obscenities, lost business opportunities, bonds not released that would spur job creation, tax breaks for the wealthy? How many more examples of a lack of respect for the democratic process?
Four more years? God help us.
Mary Ann Larson, New Gloucester
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