Praise the fossil fuel industry, not divest from it. Your story regarding Ms. Anna Siegel’s Brookie award for requesting that Maine divest itself from investments in fossil fuels lacks any critical thought (“Yarmouth teen activist wins a Brookie for climate work,” June 3).

How will the environment benefit from such divestment? If the logic is that we should, likewise, all immediately divest ourselves from using fossil fuels, such a suggestion would be laughable if the consequences were not so deadly. Currently, we all depend on fossil fuels in some way to heat and light our homes and transport vital goods into the state of Maine for our use.

Fossil fuels have been most beneficial in advancing human society and many of the companies within the industry are researching both cleaner uses of fossil fuels and alternative fuel sources. Far better if the award was given for advocating for a more efficient use of energy. During the recent pandemic, the Massachusetts Transit Authority continued to operate nearly full schedules of trains that were mostly empty, a waste of energy. Could Ms. Siegel have identified inefficient uses of energy in Maine and offered solutions? Passage of L.D. 99, the act requiring Maine to divest from fossil fuel companies, will not improve the environment but only deprive beneficiaries of Maine pension funds from worthy investment choices. To criticize an industry that provides us so much benefit is upside-down logic.

Tim Michalak
Cumberland