PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 26, 2022
The Portland Pilots is a small business – they have only about six employees – but they’re one of several groups that say waterfront workers would be hurt by Question E, a referendum that would restrict the number of passengers who can disembark from cruise ships to 1,000 per day in an effort to reduce congestion and pollution. “We do about 300 ships per year and about 80 of them are cruise ships,” said Capt. Calvin Klopp, president of Portland Pilots Inc. “If the law states only 1,000 people can disembark from the cruise lines they won’t even come.” The Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America’s Livable Portland campaign, which put the question on the ballot, no longer supports the questionand is instead promoting a compromise that aims to reduce carbon pollution from ships while maintaining jobs.