Blogs

On Friday, Olympia and I both spoke at the annual convention of the VFW in Lewiston and then headed north to meet with town officials, union representatives, and the mill manager at Katahdin Paper Company in Millinocket. Despite its great workforce and plentiful customers, the mill is slated to be shut down at the end of July because the high cost of oil makes it unprofitable. Unlike most paper mills in Maine, the Millinocket mill runs on oil.

When people think of our State, they almost always think first of lobsters. Yet Maine's lobstermen are facing difficult times with the high cost of fuel for their boats and costly new federal regulations that will require many of them, depending on the location of their traps, to replace their lines with sinking rope.

Many lobstermen believe that Maine's rocky bottom makes the use of sinking rope impractical. The regulations have a worthy goal of protecting large whales from entanglement, but are not well thought-out. Moreoever, the federal government proposed that the new rules go into effect in October at the peak of the season when lobster landings are at their highest.

Olympia and I wrote to the federal agency involved asking for a delay, and both of us made calls arguing the case for a delay put forth by the Maine Lobstermen Association. The good news is that the agency yesterday agreed to delay the rules until next April.

The news about Ted Kennedy's brain tumor hit all of us hard yesterday. I learned the news during the lunch of the Republican caucus, and we paused and said a prayer for Ted and his family.

I have worked closely with Ted on increasing funding for Pell Grants, which help low-income students afford college, but it is Ted's warmth and sense of humor that I appreciate most. After vigorous debates over policy, he inevitably would walk over to the Republican side and make a joke with whomever he was debating just moments before.

A few weeks ago I met with some bakers from Maine who told me that the prices of wheat flour and eggs had skyrocketed, and that some grains such as rye were becoming unavailable at any price. I started looking into the causes and found that many experts believe that federal ethanol policies are a significant cause along with droughts, high energy and fertilizer costs, and increased global demand. The more I examined the issue, the more I became convinced that federal policies to spur corn-based ethanol are having unintended consequences for food supplies and prices.

The Republican State Convention was a lot of fun as enthusiastic delegates and volunteers gathered at the Augusta Civic Center last weekend. A record number of volunteers signed up to work on the campaign this fall, and hundreds of supporters wore their red Collins for Senator T-shirts and put on the best demonstration I have ever seen!

Last week was one of the most memorable experiences of my life as I went to the White House ceremony welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to America, attended a dinner in his honor at the Italian Embassy, and participated in the magnificent outdoor mass that the Pope celebrated at the new Nationals Stadium.