Candidates who ignore energy costs risk voter backlash (Maine)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=191347&ac=PHnws

With gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon, cash-strapped Mainers are understandably preoccupied with getting to work and back again without running on empty.

But the high cost of filling another tank – the one that holds heating oil for Mainers' homes – looms large as well, even though winter is still months away.

So large, in fact, that the pressure is mounting for this year's crop of political candidates to propose, or more heavily emphasize, how they would help Mainers stay warm during the cold months ahead.

Heating oil was going for about $3.32 a gallon in Maine last December, but that had jumped to $3.79 a gallon by mid-March, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

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[mikehiggins]

1. Get Hugo Chavez on the wire

He's happy to sell oil on the cheap if it embarrasses the guy he thinks is Satan.

[NNadir]

2. Don't be ridiculous. Maine is 100% powered by renewable energy.

Renewable energy is free.

I read it right here on the internet.

They couldn't care less in Maine about dangerous fossil fuels, since they don't use any.

All of their cars are powered by wind, which is why there are so many sails on interstate 95.

[bhikkhu]

3. I must have missed something here.

:rofl:

but really, energy is a huge topic globally, and a huge and current problem. Snark belongs in GDP, while here I would hope to be able to argue (civilly or not) facts, such as they are.

[depakid]

4. In other words, politicians better tell people what they want to hear

that Americans can go back to their wasteful, unsustainable lifestyles without suffering any consequences for their behavior.