State officials, paper makers hold summit

ROCKPORT – The state Department of Economic and Community Development and the Maine Pulp and Paper Association held their first summit Tuesday to discuss new technologies and product lines to keep Maine’s mills running.

Jack Cashman, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, addressed the crowd of 100 state representatives and managers, engineers and owners of paper mills at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.

“We’ve got to get back on track. I’m tired of paper mills closing,” Cashman said.

Peggy Schaffer, policy and program coordinator for the Office of Innovation in the Department of Economic and Community Development, offered nine recommendations on behalf of the state to ensure the sustainability of the pulp and paper industry. Among the recommendations were to diversify the economies of the communities that rely on mills by introducing nature-based tourism and other entrepreneurial activity and to hire more loggers who are well-trained, financed and equipped.

The state intends to help mills eliminate unresolved environmental compliance regulations and push the federal government to raise its truck weight limit on Maine’s highways from 80,000 pounds to 100,000 pounds, Schaffer said.

The meeting attendees broke into four discussion groups to share ideas about improving environmental, energy, transportation and fiber supply-related operations in the mills.

“For the first time since 2002, our electricity rates depend on global fossil fuel markets,” said Kurt Adams, chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission and moderator of the energy issues discussion. Adams urged mill owners who want help from the state to collectively approach the PUC with “a few, achievable goals.”

After lunch, several representatives from the private sector discussed the specific advancements in chemical engineering that have enhanced their products.

Three representatives from the University of Maine in Orono presented new technologies and strategies aimed at moving Maine mills ahead of their domestic and international competitors.

Hemant Pendse, professor and chairman of UM’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, presented his research on “forest biorefinery,” the practice of extracting hemicellulose from trees and converting it into fuel.

Pendse encouraged the audience to be open-minded about new, complex methods of expanding the uses of pulp and paper.

“We must prepare ourselves so we can validate these technologies,” Pendse said.

“We’ve been talking about getting gas out of trees for 25 years,” said John Wissman, a resident of Greenwich Village, Conn., and representative from Lincoln Paper and Tissue. “The question is, if it happens, how are we going to keep it in Maine?”