Rules don’t close mills

In the letter, “Dems and mill closing” (BDN, March 18), Kenneth Ryan claims “Democrat-sponsored” environmental regulations have caused a decline in Maine’s paper industry.

Let’s look at the facts.

The key environmental laws affecting Maine’s paper industry, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, were signed into law by President Richard Nixon. The key laws affecting hydro-electric dams in Maine are the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act, both signed into law by President Nixon. The various citizens’ forestry referenda launched in Maine during the 1990s are allowed under Maine’s Constitution, a truly bipartisan document.

Laws requiring a 40-hour week, collective bargaining and worker safety have a far greater impact on the cost of papermaking in Maine than clean air and water laws. Would Ryan wish these laws be abolished?

He then assails taxes in Maine for driving out the paper industry. The bulk of taxes in Maine paper mill communities go to school funding. The modern paper industry requires workers with a high quality education.

Would Ryan wish Maine’s public education system be de-funded so as to keep paper mills here that can no longer find qualified Maine people to work at them?

Douglas Watts

Augusta