So “Lawmakers approve $13.4 million biomass bailout” (Page A1, April 16). The Maine Legislature has singled out a $33 billion corporation, founded by two former Goldman Sachs bankers, to be the beneficiary of this largesse. Certainly a small company like mine should be compensated when the price of gas goes up or a rainy day prevents me from working.
If my business plan relies on the manufacture and sale of covered wagons, I don’t think it is the responsibility of government to bail me out when my plan fails. If the biomass industry is based on a weak business plan, let market forces decide who succeeds and fails.
And I think that our lawmakers have forgotten that some of those tax dollars were paid by people who are struggling themselves, who may be sympathetic to the plight of loggers and truckers who may lose their jobs but who rightly ask, “What about us?”
I would feel better about this if the $13.4 million went directly to the loggers and truckers. I trust them more than I do a couple of New York investors.
Kurt Woltersdorf
Sanford
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