Dear Editor:

Mainers should be proud that we’re taking the lead on solving climate change, both at the state level and with small-business owners like me. It’s smart business, because climate change threatens Maine’s economy with more acidic oceans, unpredictable snowpack for our ski industry, rising seas that imperil coastal properties, and much more.

I’m proud to say that my company, Heliotropic Technologies, is part of the solution, by offering clean, affordable, solar energy options. Right now, we’re working with a number of other companies in the Boothbay area to save Maine electric ratepayers $18,000,000 by installing local solar energy and energy efficient technologies, like LEDs, instead of expanding an aging transmission line.

The state of Maine deserves credit for climate solutions, too; 10 years ago, we joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (REGGI), a market system for reducing Northeast power plants’ carbon pollution. REGGI’s working so well that now the national EPA is asking the rest of the country’s power plants to meet our same standards. It’s only common sense, but it will take strong support from Senators like Susan Collins and Angus King to ensure that the EPA is able to do its job.

I’m proud of Maine and small businesses like mine who are cleaning up our energy. But we can’t do it alone. I hope Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King will build from Maine’s leadership to support the EPA in bringing the rest of the country’s power plants up to New England’s same standards. Why don’t you contact your senators and ask them to protect our environment and these standards.

Michael J. Mayhew
Boothbay Harbor