Posted on 07/13/2021 6:31:19 AM PDT by cp124
Maine July 13 Policy Alert - LD 1503 Lawmakers passed a sweeping bill banning the use of several “forever” chemicals and now it awaits action by Governor Mills.
The Manufacturers Association of Maine monitored this bill, LD 1503 An Act To Stop Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Pollution during the session. Last week we asked the governor to veto this bill.
MAME members are good stewards of the environment and are proud of their environmental records, however we strongly feel this is overly broad legislation and will have many unintended consequences.
If signed into law, this bill will increase the cost of durable goods, as thousands of products will automatically be banned from sale and distribution in Maine. Maine would have the most stringent and restrictive ban on PFAS in the nation.
LD 1503’s reach is wide impacting aerospace, autos, alternative energy, healthcare, building and construction, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture. As currently written, this proposal would restrict critical materials that are essential to the COVID vaccine distribution and COVID testing, as well as the medical equipment used by healthcare providers that are on the front-line of fighting the COVID pandemic.
Manufacturing in Maine contributes over $5.9 billion dollars in GDP, provides jobs for 54,600 Mainers and our payroll tops $3.2 billion, accounting for 12% of wages paid statewide. This legislation would have significant economic implications and likely would not change the shopping habits of Maine consumers, but instead result in them crossing state lines.
Additionally, the legislation would adversely affect Maine business’ ability to access critical products – including products that are important for public health and safety. This would place Maine at a significant competitive disadvantage.
Furthermore, this legislation would create an unworkable regulatory framework in the state and would undermine interstate commerce. No other state has ever contemplated such a broad regulatory approach.
The bill was sent to the Governor Mills after passage in both the House and Senate on July 2 and she has not as of this publication taken any action.
Please consider contacting the governor’s office and asking she veto 1503.
https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/contact/share-your-opinion
Well, those would be silicates, carbonates and water, the things that have made up our planet for the last 4.5 by.
We will all be basket weavers and terracotta flowerpot makers before long.................
I am surprised Lego Masters is on the air. Maybe the FBI should keep tabs on those people.
I presume that Navy ship construction and maintenance will need to be transferred out of state.
I wonder if the forever chemicals and ingredients in the “vaccines” are subject to such “extremism”?
My previous employer had a man at 150k per year whose job was to review laws and regulations. You’d think you could do that, say, once every few years. But, no. Legislatures, county boards and city managers are all passing regulations all the time. He told me he was inundated. There generally is no mechanism to inform a manufacturer that the process they have used for decades, say, cleaning circuit boards, is now outlawed. My company subscribed to several specialist newsletters that dealt with specific topics, but even they wouldn’t know if the county suddenly decided that laundry detergent use on the floors would get you shut down. My plant was under four EPA’s, all of which had the power to shut us indefinitely. There’s the federal, state, county and city EPA. Each made regular inspections and the entire facility and grounds, including parking lot had to be spit polished before they arrived. Just that was hugely expensive.
Then, there was the time this freshly graduated teenage girl came to inspect us. It was clear she had never been in a manufacturing facility before and she behaved as if we were doing something that, if left unstopped, would kill all the baby seals. Her behavior would have been laughable except this neophyte could have shut us down which would have cost north of 100k per day. The plant manager himself, ran around like a Japanese serving girl getting her all the documentation she demanded. (Have to admit I was hiding my smile, ‘cause that thar were funny. Big, tough, cigar smoking a-hole literally trotting around.)
I bet they didn’t ban lithium: a forever chemical that’s basically a holy element in the left’s green energy communion.
It is long past time to add C to STEM education. Maybe make it STEM-CHEM? The ignorance of so many about chemicals is truly gobsmacking. Mind you I write this as a person who is not exactly a genius on the subject.
Probably the MOST POLLUTED spot in Maine or NH is the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on the island in the river separating Portsmouth, NH from Kittery, ME.
This is also the site of the former Naval Prison known as the Castle.
This site is so polluted with toxic chemicals that if any commercial non government enterprise had ever operated on this site the EPA would have put them out of business 50 years ago.
They would have millions of dollars of fines that would need to be paid. It would be an EPA super fund site similar to Love Canal. However, its the federal government. So, its OKEY DOKEY.
One of the great episodes of “Breaking Bad” was where they had a guy fake being a local environmental inspector to terrify the car wash owner into selling at a low price.
These days you can’t tell the fake “inspectors” from the real ones—they are equally kooky and dangerous.
Bath Iron Works is a big polluter per this bill.
Leftist thinking is so void of physical reality ! I think that's one of the attractions to their beleif in global warming. All poristine computer work. None of the grtitty reality of data collection. With computers you can created any world, any universe with its own rules. Better yet, a universe with your rules and such and they do !
The cure for leftism is (ironically) the Mao treatment.
Send all the intellectuals (professors, mass media types) out on to the farms and make them do manual labor for a year.
It would totally change their outlook on the world.
Per FDA:
“Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a diverse group of human-made chemicals used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. Some PFAS have been more widely used and studied than others. Many PFAS are resistant to grease, oil, water, and heat. For this reason, beginning in the 1940’s, PFAS have been used in a variety of applications including in stain- and water-resistant fabrics and carpeting, cleaning products, paints, and fire-fighting foams. Certain PFAS are also authorized by the FDA for limited use in cookware, food packaging, and food processing equipment.”
So Mainers will have to get rid of many fabrics, putting some clothing stores out of business and jacking the price of the remainder; wholesale taking of cleaning products to hazardous waste sites, leaving only some soaps to clean with; all paints would also have to go to the hazardous waste sites, leaving nothing to paint with; many types of fires would have to be allowed to burn out, since no foam can be used; cookware, gone; food packaging, ripped off; food processing, halted.
Of course none of this will effect the woke or the green weenies ...
More good news for my state of New Hampshire. More people from Maine coming over to spend their money.
Dibs on the “prefabricated mud hut” industry.
—”There’s the federal, state, county and city EPA.”
Believe it or not there a few good ones!
I had to secure the EPA permits for my employer.
Preferring to relax before work, I would take an early train, read the paper and attempt to plan my day.
Just checking the hours I called the Federal EPA office in Chicago and a person answered the phone at 6:30 AM!
He said he also liked going early and if the phone rang he would answer it. He was the supervisor of the section I needed to work with. Super helpful and would have everything ready and what time to pick it up. He even explained, there is zero parking, take a cab, and have it wait!
The state of Illinois EPA was the worst of the worst!
My contact in Springfield was never in, or on a break or lunch!
They could never answer when she would be available?
The work was for a large and politically connected hospital, they gave me a different contact and he actually answered the call and expedited our request. It was clear he knew of my problem with the other employee.
City and county are just rubber stamps on the state and fed plus a fee.
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