There are a number of infrastructure projects that could help create jobs for Mainers, spur American innovation, strengthen U.S. energy security, and boost economic success for our state and our entire country. However, an overly complex and inefficient permitting process stands in the way of new projects getting off the ground and undermines the value of taxpayer investments in building out modern, 21st century infrastructure. For her efforts, Sen. Susan Collins should be recognized for working hard at the end of last Congress to reform and streamline America’s permitting process to make way for infrastructure projects being implemented through the…
Author: Debra Plowman
Debra Plowman
The Honorable Debra Plowman was the Assistant Majority Leader of the Maine Senate and served as the Director of Policy and Programs for the Maine Department of Education. She is a small business owner and lives with her family in Hampden.
There are a lot of benefits to the New England Clean Energy Connect – benefits we’ve heard a great deal about. We know, for example, that it would provide $140 million in direct electric rate relief for Mainers. We also know it will generate an additional $350 million in indirect savings over the next decade-and-a-half. We know it will remove 3 million metric tons of carbon from the region every year, the equivalent of removing 700,000 cars from the road. These are important benefits, and I don’t want to discount them. Yet as one of the owners of a small…