Gov. Paul LePage talked about the economy, the lobster industry, Maine newspapers and energy policy in an exclusive interview with The Lincoln County News Sept. 27.
The lobster industry in Maine and Lincoln County continues to grapple with low boat prices – the price co-ops and dealers pay for a day’s catch – and high expenses.
The governor is confident a new, $2.3 million campaign to market Maine lobster, with a particular focus on growing international demand for processed lobster, will help the industry.
“The Maine lobster is going worldwide,” LePage said. “It is one of the sweetest, most sustainable resources on earth, and the fact the price on the boat is so low is because of (the industry’s) success.”
The lobstermen “did their part of the job” to ensure the sustainability of the fishery, LePage said. “While they were doing that, nobody was out there working on the demand for lobster.”
The state, with new license surcharges on lobstermen, dealers and processors, will spend $2.3 million to market Maine lobster this year, many times more than last year’s $300,000 budget.
The state hopes to grow the demand for processed lobster, especially in the international market. There is already demand for live lobster overseas, but the prohibitive cost of shipping live lobster limits the market.
For example, the people of China “love lobster, but they want it alive,” LePage said. “Well, it’s pretty hard to ship a lobster halfway around the world alive.”
“It’s the same with Europe,” LePage said. “It’s only $2 on the boat, but by the time it gets to Paris, you’re talking a $40 lobster, so you have to figure out a way that people are more accepting of a processed lobster.”
The governor sees advantages to lobster out of the shell. It makes for a cleaner meal, and a new process extracts lobster meat in such a way that it “looks like a lobster without the shell,” he said, improving the appearance of the product.
The governor’s efforts to improve the economy extend beyond the fisheries industry.
Forbes magazine ranks Maine last in the nation as a place to do business, “and until the Legislature decides to get low-cost energy and lower taxes, we are going to stay in 50th place,” LePage said.
The governor said affordable energy is his top energy policy priority.
The offshore wind projects in the works for the waters off Boothbay Harbor and Monhegan only play into that policy if they can compete with inexpensive alternatives like hydroelectricity or natural gas, he said.
“To me, if they can go offshore and make electricity for four cents, five cents (per kilowatt-hour), I’m all in,” LePage said. It would be “unacceptable” for Maine ratepayers to subsidize the projects in the 30-cent range, he said.
Mainers pay an average of 11.94 cents per kwh, 24 percent more than the national average, according to the governor’s office.
“I don’t understand why we’re all excited about high-cost electricity,” LePage said. “Why not low-cost electricity? There are some safe ways to do it.”
“To heat a home with electricity in the province of Quebec, it’s roughly $80 a month,” he said. “In the state of Maine, to have electricity in your home is about $80 a month, without heat.”
The state can reach Quebec-like utility prices with hydroelectricity, natural gas or nuclear power, although the governor acknowledges the state might never embrace those energy sources.
“Natural gas we’re working on,” LePage said. “Hydro is the best, because it’s renewable and it doesn’t emit anything into the atmosphere; and nuclear, which is the safest of all, is the most controversial, so take your pick.”
A recent article in The Boston Globe noted the devastating impact of closing the nuclear power plant Maine Yankee on the economy of Wiscasset, which now ranks as the fourth-poorest community in Maine.
The governor said Maine Yankee was a “good facility” with “10 or 15 years of life” remaining when it was closed “prematurely” at a time when people were “nervous about nuclear power around the world.”
“Now, we’re in fifth-generation technology in nuclear,” LePage said. Construction of a nuclear power plant is underway in North Carolina and another is being considered in the Southeast.
The governor, who has had a difficult relationship with some newspapers in Maine, explained his thoughts about the role of the media and talked about where he goes for news in the interview.
“All we want is the facts,” LePage said. “Be fair and balanced, and print media in Maine is no longer fair and balanced; hasn’t been for a long time.”
Newspapers should leave opinion out of news articles, LePage said.
“Every newspaper has an editorial page,” he said. “They can editorialize on that page, but when the front page is an editorial … it’s a good reason why (newspapers) are going down, because people get tired of listening to a slant.”
The governor calls the Lewiston-based Sun Journal the only fair and “reasonably accurate” daily newspaper in the state. He also reads The Wall Street Journal and listens to radio and TV news, he said.
The Portland Press Herald is “deliberately against me,” LePage said. “They don’t care what I do,” he said. “If I walked across the Kennebec River this afternoon, the headline would read ‘Governor can’t swim.'”
The state’s weekly newspapers are “far better,” he said, because the weeklies tend to focus on facts.
“The dailies look for headlines,” he said. “They look for a seven-second story, and usually they’re just not there.”
“My position is very simple,” LePage said. “I have my views. I’m conservative, I believe in hard work, and I believe in helping my fellow man.”
