Working Waterfront

Tax breaks for renewables will keep innovation moving

Let's turn the calendar back to another October, the one in 1973, when OPEC raised the price of oil by 70 percent. Imagine that in early 1974, your state or federal government made a $1,000 tax credit available to be applied to the purchase of any vehicle that got 25… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Don’t trust potential losers in climate change war

Climate change and the infamous "Deflate-gate," the scandal involving NFL quarterback Tom Brady, may seem to have little in common. But bear with us, here, as we make the case. It's not something so cutesy as air pressure that the two issues share. No, it's about winning and losing. For… SEE MORE

Protestors outside Bangor's federal building.

Working Waterfront

Environment is a wild card for lobster

In June, a battery of highly paid lawyers sat at a table in federal court in Bangor, the company they represent on the hook for dumping mercury in the lower Penobscot River decades earlier. It was easy to imagine them being anxious as they listened to an opposing lawyer explain… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Parsing the ‘It’s not bad, it’s different’ sentiment

The comment was poignant, maybe reflecting resignation, maybe reflecting sadness. A native of Lubec, speaking about the changes she's seen since her days working in a sardine packing plant ended years ago, described a community where she no longer knows most everyone. The Lubec of years ago was a place… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Asserting ourselves locally is still an option

The traditional March town meeting in Maine, an institution that has launched many a laudatory newspaper editorial praising it as the last bastion of pure democracy, ain't what it used to be. And that's too bad. In recent decades, management of schools, law enforcement, solid waste and other government functions… SEE MORE

A boat under construction at Hodgdon Yacht.

Working Waterfront

Manufacturing, alive and well in… Boothbay?

Everyone wants to see manufacturing businesses return to the U.S. and Maine. And why not? The value of businesses that make tangible things in large plants where hundreds of employees go to work each morning is easy to understand. Those large-scale manufacturing businesses typically offer a range of entry level… SEE MORE

An image used to illustrate the "genuine originals" group.

Working Waterfront

Trolling for the (right) tourists

When it comes to tourism, Maine can't be complacent and count on license plates that proclaim itself Vacationland. It's a crowded and expensive marketplace, and one in which potential visitors weigh competing lodging choices and even competing weather forecasts. Under the leadership of director Carolann Ouellette, the Maine Office of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The fight for the climate has a new home front

What does the Port of Seattle have to with drilling for oil in the Arctic? And if it is tied to extraction there, are protestors on sound footing by painting the port as an accomplice in the war against the climate? An unusual story is playing out on the other side… SEE MORE