March 29, 2024
Letter

Highway will ruin state

So, there we have another promise of economic prosperity, backed by a federally funded $1 million (taxpayer) study (“Maine may be central to ‘Atlantica’; east-west corridor could secure economic region’s growth, experts say,” BDN, Jan. 21-22).

Needless to say the current administration strongly encourages oil-driven economy, big corporations and cuts funds for more sustainable means of transportation.

But who will actually benefit from a new highway through Maine? A new highway will create sprawl with fast food chains and gas stations, something we see all over the country and that makes huge areas so interchangeable. For the most part, these businesses will not be owned locally, big national corporations will get the best of it instead and leave Mainers only with a small share, a polluted environment and a negative impact on Maine’s most unique and precious resource: its wildlife and its undisturbed wilderness.

In times of steadily rising gas prices and a predicted exhaustion of oil resources by 2050 it is irresponsible to waste public money to build a new highway. We need to realize that and act accordingly.

Highway transportation will not be competitive in the long run, because customers will have to pay for the increased costs of gas prices. Instead, the money should be spent on more sustainable means of transportation: revive and extend the railroad network and encourage public transport. Maine used to have an extensive railroad network and it brought economic prosperity.

It would be relatively easy to build on to this network and it would ensure that resources would be spent reasonably and for the benefit of the public.

Roxanne Quimby might not have moved to North Carolina had there been a train station in Guilford that would have allowed her company and others to use the railroad for their shipping.

Anne Ehringhaus

Greenville Junction


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