PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 11, 2022
Maine was the third state, in 1978, to ban billboards. perhaps the most alarming aspect of billboards, in case you have not been out of state recently, is that many are being converted to high-intensity LED lighted signs that act similar to giant TV screens flashing ads at you on a rotating basis. They are distracting to drivers, causing more accidents to occur in their vicinity than on other stretches of road. They are fatal to migrating birds, which depend on dark skies at night to navigate. And they are huge energy hogs, some studies showing that just one LED billboard has the annual electricity consumption of 30 homes. Maine will be asked again in November to affirm kindred spirit values that have been well honed over the past 50 years. Hopefully we will make the right choices. ~ Irv Williams, South Portland