by Jonathan Reisman

September brought a super full moon, a partial eclipse, solar flares, and aurora alerts. The calendar included my late wife’s birthday, our anniversary, Labor Day, Sept. 11th, Constitution Day, and a hermit-ending late summer trip down the airline to Bangor.  All those events are linked to less sleep and strong emotions (alas, Kamala’s “Joy” is not one of them). That may explain a somewhat scattershot column on climate policy, polls, and polarization.

Climate Policy Anxiety  

I attended the Maine Won’t Wait climate action plan update meeting and advocated for an honest and transparent policy that details how much climate change is being averted and at what cost. I left the meeting convinced that the plan will do nothing of the sort and will double down on a policy path of expensive and unreliable energy (windmills and solar) with no climate benefit whatsoever. The plan has gone beyond the (unrealistic) phasing out of fossil fuels to become a fully woke omnibus to promote (undefined) equity, mental health (combating climate anxiety), and youth indoctrination. 

The updated plan will be filed by Dec 1, after the election and as the new legislature is seated. I have asked that two pieces of responsive legislation be introduced:

• The Sound Science in Climate Change Policy Act directs the Department of Environment Protection, when promulgating greenhouse gas emission reductions, to issue an estimate, based on sound science, of the amount of climate change that will be averted and at what cost. The environmental left hated it 20 years ago and undoubtedly still does.

• A 50% public ownership cap in any given county. The plan also calls for increasing public ownership for conservation and carbon sequestration to 30% of the State. 30% of Washington County is already in such ownership, and the vast majority of Maine’s conservation lands, including recent and proposed acquisitions, are all in the 2nd Congressional District. Capitalism is an economic system where the resources of production (like land) are primarily owned and controlled by the private sector. The 50% cap protects that. The climate action plan’s public ownership goal is a rare transparent moment of anti-capitalist sentiment. Climate commies is probably a bit strong because there is a lot of pursuit of green currency in the climate hustle.

Is your electric bill too high? The climate alarmists are to blame, and it is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Polls and Polarization

Polling always reminds me of the potentially unhealthy relationship between propaganda, politics, marketing, and psy-ops, but that is probably just a product of my Statler and Waldorf internship crossed with my preferred pronouns (XY/Curmudgeon)

Pan Atlantic of Portland released a survey of Maine that highlighted our polarization. Here are a few takeaways.

Top Identified Issues/Concerns:

Cost of Living (67%), Housing (37%), High Taxes (28%), Inflation (28%), Immigration(19%). Healthcare access/insurance (18%), and Climate Change/Environmental Issues (18%). 

Maine is fashioning a bottom-of-the-list climate action plan that will raise the cost of living, the cost of housing, and taxes while doing nothing to avert climate change. Great deal.

Right Track/Wrong Track

Wrong Direction (44%), Right Direction (40%), Unsure (16%)

Polarization Breakdown: 

• 69% of Democrats said that the state is headed in the right direction compared to 33% of Independents and only 17% of Republicans.

• 46% of respondents in CD1 said that the state is headed in the right direction compared to 34% of respondents in CD2.

• Kamala Harris’s net favorability is +16 in CD1 and -9 in CD2. Conversely, Donald Trump’s net favorability is -31 in CD1 and +0 in CD2.

• In CD1, Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump by 28 percentage points. Conversely, in CD2, Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris by seven percentage points

For more on the survey, go to Cost of Living, Housing, and High Taxes Top of Mind for Mainers: Pan Atlantic Research Poll - The Maine Wire and 64TH PAN ATLANTIC RESEARCH OMNIBUS POLL (hubspotusercontent-na1.net).