Energy efficiency efforts are the most cost-effective way to reduce our dependence on oil for heating, saving Maine people real money. As the state works to increase the penetration of those efforts in all communities, efforts to educate people of the benefits and availability of energy efficiency programs are critical but will, like any new effort, require test driving a number of vehicles before the most effective one is identified. The Maine Green Energy Alliance vehicle was not working as envisioned and the decision to retire it was appropriate. More analysis of why that vehicle was not successful and of the vehicles that are working well would have been of great value.

More disappointing was the tone of the articles, particularly the second article that stopped just shy of accusing the MGEA of being nothing but a political payoff. To suggest that the political affiliation and experience of MGEA employees was the sine qua non for their employment is the type of insinuation that this and any paper should avoid entirely. I can’t speak to all of those employees, but I do know Rep. Melissa Walsh Innes, Tom Federle and Jed Rathband through a number of venues and I know that they are each committed to making Maine a better place to live, work and recreate. Trying to make them into a caricature of political party machine politics isn’t fair, falls far short of the promise of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting and should have required a higher standard from The Forecaster.

Sean Mahoney
Falmouth


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