Dear Editor:

Every January, headlines proclaim “Earth’s hottest year on record!” Democratic leaders have fully embraced green energy. At the cost of billions to ratepayers, forests are being leveled and farmland converted into solar arrays to reach 100% “clean” energy by 2040. Maine’s efforts will have virtually zero impact on global temperatures. The construction, operation, and decommissioning of these projects will emit massive amounts of CO₂.

Recent claims pegged Earth’s 2024 average temperature at a suspiciously precise 59.32°F. If dramatic warming were occurring, thermometers should be shattering records worldwide. Yet that isn’t happening.

Data from properly maintained stations tells a different story. Maine’s all-time record high of 105°F, set in North Bridgton on July 10, 1911, remains unbroken after 115 years. Twelve Maine towns have recorded 100°F or higher. Seven of those extremes occurred in 1975; the others date to 1897, 1911, 1935, and 1955. Maine’s official hottest year is 1913, the coldest was 1904.

In Portland, temperatures have reached or exceeded 100°F in only six years since 1874. Three of those occurred between 1911 and 1926, including the city’s all-time high of 103°F. From 1900 to 1950, Portland hit 100°F four times. In the last 50 years, it has done so only once.

Nationally, many states set their all-time highs in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with the Dust Bowl 1930s adding the most. Only three states have set new all-time highs this century.

Globally, the World Meteorological Organization tracks highest temperatures across 12 regions. Record dates: 1931, 2016, 2017, 1905, 1913, 1960, 1942, 2021, 2020, 1982, 2020, and 1989. Their average age is about 50 years.

Vast resources are being spent on what appears to be a manufactured crisis. Maine’s green energy push brings real costs: higher rates, land-use conflicts, and future decommissioning expenses for turbines and panels that may become hazardous waste.

The real crisis won’t be runaway heat. It will arrive when the bills come due and we must dismantle an expensive, unreliable system built on hype rather than data and engineering. Maine deserves better than virtue-signaling policies that punish ratepayers for negligible benefit. It is time to stop the madness.

Joe Grant

Wiscasset