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What challenges and opportunities does Maine face as energy costs continue to escalate?
Jonathan Rubin, Economics Professor, University of Maine: "Maine has some particular challenges because of our rural nature, which means in particular our dispersed population means that transportation is going to be more expensive. Also, northern and northeastern Maine are most heavily dependent in the nation on heating oil for warmth in the wintertime. Those are the biggest challenges they face. On the other hand, on the energy supply front, since we have no petroleum reserves, but we do have significant wind potential, we have biofuels potential, we have potential in tidal power. So, we could actually become much more energy-independent as a state and potentially supply the New England region with energy. So, there's a lot of upsides that require R&D, government support, and private investment to get there. The University of Maine is involved in biofuels and involved in research on advanced composites--these things are a potential economic growth for the state. We're not there yet--when you're still at the university stage, you're at the research stage. We're not fully ready to roll these out as finished products, but we can make a contribution, so there are lots of economic potentials that are here, as well as some environmental gains to be had."
