MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 6, 2020
This is what passes for bold action today to confront the mounting crisis of climate change: Stakeholder advocacy. Years and years of delay. Analysis paralysis. The region’s slow-motion response made me think back to another crisis and another major energy project, this one built across western Maine roughly 80 years ago. World War II was an immediate crisis. German Navy ships were disrupting crucial oil tanker deliveries to Canadian refineries in Montreal. The answer was to build an underground pipeline from the secure harbor in Portland to Montreal, 236 miles away on an emergency schedule, in record time. It’s hard to imagine such a response today. ~ Tux Turkel