Opinions
Maine's mountains are an economic treasure
Will Maine be positioned to be a world tourism leader and destination because it wisely assessed these viewsheds and their greater economic value and set them off limits to wind power and other transforming, fragmenting development?
Or will Maine's economy be bankrupted by the rush to industrialize its most valuable assets?
March 27, 2011
by Penny Gray
in Sun Journal
In the 1970s and '80s, there was a rush to dam all of the rivers in Maine when Federal Energy Regulatory Commission laws were eased to meet an energy crisis. What stopped that from happening? Something called the Maine Rivers Study.
Maine was the first state in the nation to survey its rivers and designate them in three classes. The rivers that were spared, the Dead, Kennebec and Penobscot, have become multimillion-dollar economic assets for Maine with large economic multipliers that ripple through rural and state economies, providing thousands of jobs.
It would have been a tragedy to destroy those assets.
The... [continue via Web link]
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