BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 24, 2025
Last spring, along Maine’s rocky coast I saw wrecked docks and shattered piers, splinters strewn across beaches. Seawater defied seawalls, flooding lawns with sand. Houses were damaged or gone. Taxpayers have to shell out $90 million for public infrastructure alone. Harmful pollution exacerbates the climate crisis, making the damage from those storms just the start. If just 4 feet of sea level rise occurs, over 3,700 homes, two power plants, a sewage plant, and other critical infrastructure will be inundated, costing Maine $10.9 billion. Who pays for that? We, the taxpayers, do. I believe our dollars should be invested in building a stronger Maine, not cleaning up a mess we didn’t cause. The Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program would create a fund that Big Oil has to pay into for rebuilding infrastructure after storms and strengthening our state’s adaptation to climate change. As a young taxpayer, I don’t want to shoulder the financial burden of climate change. A climate Superfund would alleviate that pressure.~ Maya Faulstich, Yarmouth