Andrea Boland cares about the concerns of the people of Maine. Among them are job creation, affordable housing, higher education, the high cost of health care, and maintaining the safe and clean environment that our state is known for.

She also profoundly believes that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” when it comes to an important issue. Since 2014, she has focused on the vulnerability of our electric power grid to a severe solar storm or an electromagnetic force (EMP) weapon from a terrorist or rogue nation like North Korea.

Since protections are available at a low cost, we should not delay requiring electric power companies in Maine to install them. At about $1.50 per year per household, for only four to five years, David Woodsome was wrong to call them too expensive for Mainers, and lead Republican state senators to vote to block protections.

A catastrophic solar storm is given 100 percent probability of happening (NASA gives it a 12 percent likelihood in any decade), and certainly an EMP terrorist or enemy attack would come without warning. Think what it would mean to be unprepared. Consider the loss of the internet and other means of communication, banking, heating, our food supply, power for vital medical devices, and job losses.

Andrea needs your vote for Senate District 33 to move forward from her landmark legislation passed in 2013 that caused Maine to be recognized as a national leader. I am a former teacher in District 33.

Karen Coombs
Brewer