An important part of our Maine brand is a clean and healthy environment.

Every day, our families enjoy the great outdoors. Every year, tens of millions of visitors, and the tourist dollars they bring, come to Maine to experience our natural environment. Our renowned hospitality industry employs over 100,000 fellow Mainers. A clean environment is an integral piece of our way of life and critical to Maine’s economy.

Conversations here at home and across the globe should continue about how the changing climate is affecting our planet. We Americans should be proud to be world leaders in both emission reduction as well as energy production. From 2005 to 2018, according to a 2020 Environmental Protection Agency report, total U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions fell by 12 percent while global emissions increased nearly 24 percent.

Here in Maine, 79 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources. The downside is that our power costs are roughly 35 percent more expensive than the average of all 50 states. Those increased costs weigh down Maine families and our seniors living on fixed incomes. We should seek a better balance.

Congress should support an all-of-the-above domestic energy policy that includes both traditional fuels like heating oil, gasoline, diesel, propane, natural gas and jet fuel as well as other lower-carbon sources. As seen in Europe and elsewhere, the world cannot realistically fuel our growing energy needs by simply turning off traditional energy sources, which today account for about 80 percent of all the world’s supply.

The U.S. Senate is debating another $1.7 trillion entitlement spending package, which the House Democrat majority already passed. Beyond the unfathomable amount of additional taxpayer dollars, the so-called reconciliation bill includes a number of new taxes, including one on natural gas that will further raise the cost to heat thousands of Maine homes, hospitals, schools, libraries and businesses by 12 to 34 percent, according to an American Petroleum Institute analysis.

In New England, cleaner-burning natural gas has mostly replaced coal and oil to generate electricity at our regional power plants. However, Maine families and small businesses pay the 12th highest monthly bills in the country while our wages are lower than in other states. Many of our senior citizens have only their monthly Social Security checks to live on. Public officials need to carefully balance energy demand, reliability and environmental progress with the cost of living for families and retirees.

Almost everything costs more these days, from groceries to gasoline. Inflation is the highest in 30 years, and it’s wiping out wage gains that often come with new jobs. Mainers who paid $40 to fill up their cars and pickups one year ago are now spending $70. That’s another $1,500 per year with a weekly fill-up. The Department of Energy recently predicted that families who use heating oil or propane – around 60 percent of Maine households – could see their costs jump by 54 percent and 43 percent, respectively.

Maine families and small businesses simply cannot endure these punishing prices, especially vulnerable seniors getting by on fixed incomes. Part of the solution is for the current administration and congressional majority to reopen our domestic energy exploration, production and transportation. That will increase supplies and help keep costs down. Congress should also abandon its push to raise taxes on traditional fuels like clean-burning natural gas, included in the $1.7 trillion welfare expansion bill that was passed by the House and is now before the Senate.

Washington should use some Maine common sense to help our families get through another long winter.

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