This is the time to enjoy a hard earned summer, but throughout the Lakes Region and the state, officials and residents are worried about next winter. It is because this July 4, the rising cost of energy is now the biggest threat to our “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Thomas Jefferson’s declaration must now be considered as a manifesto for independence from fossil fuels. Whether one believes that climate change is or is not caused by fossil fuel use is immaterial – the cost of reliance on finite resources now in higher demand globally is too much. It is time to conserve and explore alternatives even as short term solutions will not please everyone.

The Gray Town Council this week grappled with a $56,000 budget shortfall created because heating oil costs almost $1.50 a gallon more than was budgeted for. A solution is to close Stimson Hall for the winter to save an estimated $8,000. But then the Town Council loses its meeting room.

A proposed bus service from Harrison to Portland was scuttled because rising gas prices increased operational costs $30,000 a year to $205,000. Is conserving gas and reducing traffic really too expensive? Or is the failed effort indicative of shortsighted thinking in need of longterm reivsion?

State officials are now looking to heat public buildings with wood or wood pellets while ridding homes of older woodstoves that burn inefficiently and pollute. Central Maine Power has announced plans for new transmission lines to carry power generated by wind.

More reliance on wind and wood for heat and energy is not unanimously supported, but the consequences of pollution from burning wood must be weighed against the long-term costs of oil dependence and its crushing effect on local budgets.

Trees can be planted and stoves can be replaced, but oil dependency increases taxes and depletes services in the form of higher fuel costs for school buses and emergency vehicles, material for road repairs and heating or cooling public buildings.

Wind power is criticized because of the level of government subsidies needed and the visual blight of the turbines. Which costs more, subsidies for wind power or defending the free flow of oil? As Sebago resident Kate Smith noted while running for the Maine Legislature in 2006, “a wind turbine is more attractive than a coal mine.”

Railroad service is criticized because it also requires subsidies, but building the Gorham bypass will cost $26 million while restoring rail service from Portland to Boston cost $50 million. The comparative cost per mile and rising gas prices shows light rail service along the Mountain Division Line from Portland to Fryeburg will ultimately be a better bargain than new roads unless a mass conversion to hybrid vehicles takes place very shortly.

That conversion should begin with the state and towns buying hybrid vehicles whenever possible. The initial added cost will pay for itself at the pump. In Standish, officials should consider using some of the $500,000 just approved for town hall renovations to power the building by sun or wind.

The stamp and tea acts leading to the Declaration of Independence are distant memories. Survival of the republic created by the declaration depends on making fossil fuel dependence a distant memory.

David Harry, editor