Corporations are sounding off louder than the voices of Mainers who care about jobs in the sustainable fishing industry.  When less than 1% of contributions to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ campaign originate from donors who say they are from Maine, we should be worried.  Last quarter alone, she received $50,000 in donations from members of the Texas oil and gas industry – five times the amount given by Maine residents.  This may be why she might feel compelled to vote for known climate-change denier, Benard McNamee, for the Federal Energy Regulation Commission.

When corporate donations outweigh those of Mainers the results are appointments and policy decisions that contribute to ocean acidification and warming waters.  Acidification disrupts the calcification process of shell-producing organisms.  Warming waters means northward migration of cold-water seeking species and proliferation of invasive predators such as the green crab.  When native species move away or die off, we lose jobs that are part of our heritage – digging clams, catching cod and trapping lobsters.

Efforts to sustain fishing in Maine will fail unless we limit corporate campaign contributions.  The best way to do this is to neutralize the Citizens United decision by enacting a 28th Amendment to our Constitution.

Sarah Crowley
Freeport