Green Streets #19

Angus King:

We Americans tend to look for one big solution, the silver bullet, you know, that's going to solve everything. My friend Laurie Lachance up in Augusta at the Maine Development foundation coined the term silver buckshot, which I like much better because that's how you solve problems is with a lot of smaller answers which added together get us out of a particular dilemma.

Michael Stoddard:

So what we learned from this program we ran last year to help folks weatherize their homes is that for an average cost of $1.16 per gallon, you can save a gallon of oil through energy conservation.

Doug Welch:

It is purely based on a handshake agreement with the island owner that says if you list the island as a part of the Main Island Trail, we will take care of it and it will be in better shape than it would have been otherwise.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Hello, this is Dr. Lisa Belisle and welcome to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast for January 22, 2012. This week's topic, which is on show number 19, is Green Streets. And on our show today we are featuring Maine's former governor, Angus King, Michael Stoddard from Efficiency Maine, and Doug Welch from Main Island Trail. If you've ever wondered how it is that we come up with these topics, there's a lot that goes into it. So I thought I would spend time dishing, deep dishing with my co host Genevieve Morgan on the subject. Good morning, Jen.

Genevieve Morgan:

Hi Lisa. These three guests that we have been involved in some conservation and energy efficiency for a really long time, I mean decades. I think it's so interesting that we're bringing them on the show. Why energy efficiency? How does that relate to people's personal health?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Anybody who's been listening to the podcast, and I'm sure you've all downloaded every single one of the 19 that we've

Genevieve Morgan:

done, I'm absolutely sure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Don't you think? Yes. Everybody's gone to itunes and they have become subscribers of the Dr. Lisa podcast has listened to the segments that we've done with regard to personal energy. So we've talked to Marcel Pick, Are youe Tired and Wired? We've talked to Dr. Christiane Northrup about the body's wisdom. And actually, we haven't talked yet to Joanne Arnold, but we will be. And we know she's gonna talk about personal energy. We've talked to Steven Anderson of the Body Architect. So all of these shows are talking about personal energy and what you can do to promote and conserve simultaneously your own energy and the energy of your family. So one of the things is to take into consideration that there is outgoing energy involved with sort of existing on the plan. Yeah.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, we all breathe in and we all breathe out, and that is energy.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. And if you have polluted air or you have polluted water or you have food that is impacted by potential toxins or things that create more of a burden. We've talked about the body burden as well. Then it requires more energy of you personally from a health standpoint to detoxify

Genevieve Morgan:

and cleanse your system.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. And I hate the word toxin and I hate the word detoxify. But. And this is nothing on you, Jen.

Genevieve Morgan:

But.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Because the body can handle a lot. But the point is that it doesn't have to handle these things if we can minimize the sort of problematic things or the have more heavy burdens that can go into the body potentially.

Genevieve Morgan:

Right. Well, so recognize and then lower the load. So where do people start?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, that's very interesting. And in fact, I picked up Our Daily Tread, which is the book that we are encouraging people to get and to purchase in honor of my late Bowdoin College classmate Hanley Denning. And it offers daily inspirations. And this daily inspiration is go forth on your path as it exists only through your walking. This was a quote from St. Augustine. So, of course, if you want this book, you go to islandportpress.com and all proceeds benefit the organization's Safe Passage. But it's a very good quote because the point is that you start where you are and you move forward. Start where you are. Start where you are. And don't get discouraged or overwhelmed by the fact that you could potentially have to do so many things.

Genevieve Morgan:

And how does that relate to energy efficiency in our guests when we're talking about people starting where they are?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it relates in different ways. I mean, Angus King came in to the state of Maine as a very different sort of governor. He was an independent. He had very different thoughts on Sustainability and promoting business within the state and energy efficiency. And he just started where he was from a governor standpoint, governorship standpoint. And his wife Mary Herman actually supported him and did her own thing throughout her time at the State House. So there's that piece. And then you have Michael Stoddard of Efficiency Main and of course, well, he

Genevieve Morgan:

works to help all of us in the state of Maine save money through conservation of energy through changing our light bulbs and weatherizing our houses and also business people. So I guess in that he started out by assessing problematic areas and then trying to find solutions for them, which is sort of what we're saying we should do individually.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes, that's right. And then we have Doug Welch from Main Island Trail. And they started with, you know, an island and a bit of path and they just kept moving forward. They literally, literally extending the path they saw exactly over several decades now. So it is about starting where you are and not getting overwhelmed. So one thing that I talk a lot about is instead of having a fear based approach to energy, the environment, personal health is just do what you can.

Genevieve Morgan:

I know I always feel guilty when I don't recycle, but sometimes it just seems like it all goes into the same bin anyway. So occasionally I'll throw in the wrong thing in the wrong bin and I get this guilt when I walk away from it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Oh, Genevieve, I'll do you one better. I used to bring my recyclables back from my hotels and my trips and like put them in my luggage in going back on the plane. And my ex husband would make fun of me because of course you think about that. So you're putting your semi trash into your luggage, which costs more. So you're actually using energy to bring it back to your house to recycle it. So believe me, I totally get this. And I went to a place in my life when I was a doctor and I was really focusing on the environment and energy where I felt so guilty. Like if I couldn't do absolutely everything, then I was like so overwhelmed and so angry with myself.

Genevieve Morgan:

It's exhausting. You don't know. You feel guilty when you eat the wrong thing. You feel guilty if you don't recycle in the right bin. If you leave your car on when you're waiting for your child in negative 10 degree weather, it starts to feel like its own stress load.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It is. And that's its own energy drain. So it's so interesting that if you're trying to do something that's sort of Good for yourself, your health, your family, the environment. And you aren't able to do it and you feel guilty, then it's another energy drain.

Genevieve Morgan:

So what do you suggest?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I think it's doing the best you can. I mean, as Michael Stoddard points out, one of the first things that they ask people to do is this sort of energy efficiency assessment. So you go in and you see what's sort of going on from an energy standpoint and try to minimize the outflow of energy and try to maximize sort of the heat in your home and then sort of shore up the areas that need help. But start with the simple and then sort of move outward and do that in your. You can do that in your own personal life and your family life as well.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, and that makes a good point that you also can call in people with expertise.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes.

Genevieve Morgan:

Who know how to do this.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's absolutely true. There is this idea that really what you need to do is just live your own life in the best way that you can be role model, go forward as a role model in your own life to yourself, and then role model for your family, role model for the community, and don't do it in a sort of look how great I am. But just live your life and live your life in a way that makes sense to you, that resonates with you.

Genevieve Morgan:

And it seems like these guests that we're having on the show really exemplify that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, absolutely. And we're gonna talk with Angus about his trip across America. So that's a way that he, you know, that's totally different from his governorship, but that's a way that he just decided at the end of his governorship he needed to replenish and he did something a little different.

Genevieve Morgan:

I can't wait to hear.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We like the fact that people are liking our Facebook page and going to drlisabelisle.com we've had a groundswell of support and we, we know that people out there are using us to replenish their own energy. So we thank everybody for joining us on this Green Streets episode this week. November 19th. On January 22nd, 2012, The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is proud to be sponsored by the University of New England. The University of New England, itself, a very innovative place, sponsors our segment we call Wellness Innovations. This week's wellness innovation comes from sustainablebusinessoregon.com in an area of Maine generally known for its strip malls and big box stores, newcomer Sebago Farms plans to build a 1.7 million square foot mixed use facility that will house hydroponic greenhouses, a fish farm and an algae based biofuels research area and employ up to 170 people. The ambitious project, the size of about seven Walmart superstores, is the first venture of WNWN LLC, which stands for Win Win or Waste Not Want not, owned by Arundel main businessman and retired schoolteacher John Derkindren. Dr. Kinderan also is a principal in project planning and management at BioSyn Energy LLC, a Doyleston, Pennsylvania based company that describes itself as a team of worldwide multidisciplinary experts focused on refining waste streams into green revenue and jobs. Well, we know that as Maine goes, so goes the nation. So thank you to the University of New England for sponsoring this wellness innovation. To learn more about this, go to the Dr. Lisa website and to learn more about the University of New England, go Une. Edu.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Today in the studio with us, we have Maine's former governor Angus King, who has a lot to offer in a lot of different areas. So we're going to try to narrow it down, but we know that whatever he has to say will be interesting. Thank you for coming in.

Angus King:

Delighted to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And we also have Genevieve Morgan, who is our co host. Hi Genevieve.

Genevieve Morgan:

Hi, Lisa. Hi, Angus.

Angus King:

Good morning.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, there's a lot of intersections. I wanted to let you know that you spoke at my son's graduation at Yarmouth High School's graduation last June.

Angus King:

Oh, that was a lot of fun. That was a great graduation.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It was. And I think you were invited because of Maine's technology initiative.

Angus King:

That's right. A couple of the students really got into the laptop project and they were doing national kinds of things and they invited me and said, you know, because of your involvement with the laptop, we'd like you to come. And I couldn't really say no. It was fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There's been a long reach to this laptop program and a lot of things you did as a governor.

Angus King:

Well, we're still, it's in our 10th year now and it's still going strong about all of seventh and eighth graders, about Half to two thirds of the high schools are now what we call one to one, which means each student has a laptop. And this year, and there's a lot of head scratching over in Lewiston, Auburn, every kindergartner in Auburn has an iPad, which is really amazing. And when you think about it as I did, you say first thing you think is, oh, that's crazy, this device with these little kids. But then you stop and think, how do kids interact with the world with their fingers? Touch. You know, remember, we all learned to finger paint. The iPad is, you know, finger painting times 10,000. And they don't need to learn how to use a stylus. They don't have to need to learn. And they can do these incredible things and they're seeing terrific results on just things like kids learning their Alphabet, the little kids. So it's been quite an amazing project.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I think about the laptop initiative as one way that you're sort of helping people to be mindful of their energy to learn in an energetically mindful way that's going to help them later on in their lives. I mean, if you help them to be more efficient in the way that they learn when they're younger, then it's going to impact them and it's going to impact the state's economy ultimately when they come back to work here.

Angus King:

Well, the truth is the laptop project was an economic development project. As I looked out over the landscape in the late 90s, what I saw coming was an economy that was much more dependent upon education and technology than hard work and a strong back. So my theory was pretty straightforward. If we had the best educated and the most digitally literate society in the world, we'd win. And that's the whole idea, because when employers look at where to move, it's mostly about qualified people. That's what they're looking for. And so that was the whole idea of helping our kids to become the most adept with those devices of the 21st century.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I understand that you spent some time working with our co host, Genevieve Morgan's grandmother on something that wasn't specifically energy, but it was forward thinking.

Genevieve Morgan:

Yes, you are very forward thinking. Go ahead.

Angus King:

And your grandmother, Marian Fuller Brown, is one of the icons of recent Maine history. She was a stalwart throughout her 90 plus years, particularly in environmental matters. And I first met her in about 1976 when I was lobbying for the environmental community and she was working with the garden club and other environmental entities. And together we came up with the billboard bill.

Genevieve Morgan:

And I might say that she was a long term stalwart Republican.

Angus King:

Oh, yes.

Genevieve Morgan:

And adored you.

Angus King:

Well, she was really funny. We worked together on the billboard bill. It was Jim Longley's initiative, as a matter of fact. Governor Longley, my predecessor, is an independent governor. A lot of people have forgotten this. One of his major things was the billboard bill. And so I was assigned to draft the law. And so an assistant attorney general and I sat in a room one afternoon and we took Vermont's billboard law, and everywhere it said Vermont, we crossed it out and wrote Maine. And that was the extent of the draftsmanship. But it's been one of the things that's sort of a trademark of Maine is how clean the roadways are. But then when I became governor, your grandmother would call me about once, I'd say once every six months and say, angus, they're trying to do something to our bill. And sure enough, there'd be a bill in the legislature to say, well, okay, billboards are okay for flea markets or for whatever. And there were always efforts to sort of chip away at it. And Marian Fuller Brown was always there at the front of the barricades.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, that's an interesting point that you bring up. That the fact that she would keep calling you because people would keep being on your case, I mean, that you actually have to be sort of ever vigilant in some ways in order to keep the streets clean, to keep the billboards off the streets.

Angus King:

Oh, well, you know, the legislature never sleeps in a sense. You know, there's always change and nothing is ever finally settled. And in fact, that's one of the problems with term limits. I voted for term limits back in 1993, and I think it was a mistake, frankly, because one of the things that happens is the legislature now turns over so fast that, that there's a loss of institutional memory, that there could be a major issue, a lot of argument, a lot of debate, a lot of research, a lot of data. And then four years later, two thirds of the people that went through all that are gone. In my eight years as governor, I had four speakers of the House and we have perfectly good people now, but it's just this sort of turnover. And what's happened is a lot of the power of the legislature has sort of migrated to the governor's office or to the lobbyists or just sort of evaporated. So, yeah, you think an issue is settled and two or three years later you're right back at it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, so it is that sort of startup energy that is required in order to just Kind of beginning again. So every so often, whenever a term

Angus King:

limit has been reached, and there are some good things about term limits, it does sort of refresh the system. But in my view, we probably ought to at least stretch it out to 12 years or something like that, because being a legislator is a complex job. It's not easy. And they're complicated issues, and the issues get more complicated all the time. And you really do want some expertise up there. And right now, just when you get the expertise developed, they graduate well.

Genevieve Morgan:

And that is one of the bonuses of getting older, is you get experience and wisdom, and you can use that for the benefit of the greater good, like you've done your whole life, practically.

Angus King:

Well, one hopes you learn something over time. I know, for example, that, you know, I was elected governor when I was 50, and I'm pretty sure I can say safely that I was a lot better governor than I would have been had I been elected at 40, because the experience that I had between 40 and 50 of starting a business, buying workers comp, shopping for health insurance for my employees, staying up late, borrowing money, all those kinds of things really contributed a lot to the judgments that I made when I was in office. So hopefully it's a question of learning from experience. And what I tell my students at Bowdoin is that's why you need to read history. History, if you think about it, is condensed experience. When you read a book about Lincoln in the Civil War, you can't live what he lived, but you can experience it in a secondhand way and hopefully learn something from it. Mark Twain. I love Mark Twain, has a lot of great quotes, but I think my favorite is history doesn't always repeat itself, but it usually rhymes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So there are patterns that people.

Angus King:

Absolutely. Isn't that great? It usually rhymes.

Genevieve Morgan:

And wouldn't it be nice to learn from somebody else's failures instead of your own every once in a while?

Angus King:

Well, my father used to say, even the worst person can serve as a bad example.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You know, how does what you're talking about relate to the work that you've done with wind power, for example?

Angus King:

Well, I came to realize, well, first I should back off and say, I've been involved in energy and alternative energy all my adult life. I was involved in hydropower in Maine in the early 80s, and then biomass and then energy conservation. So except for that weird eight years in Augusta, I've been doing pretty much energy work. So I've always had an interest in it. And when I did hydro back in the 80s, people used to yell at me and say, why are you ruining our rivers? Why don't you do wind power? And of course, now we're doing wind power and people yell at you and say, why are you ruining our mountains? Let's do more hydro. So there's no way to win that one. But I've come to realize, and particularly remember the summer of 08 when gasoline went up to almost $4 a gallon. And as it approached, it's in that range 344 today. I think I've come to realize how vulnerable Maine is in terms of energy. To be honest, it wasn't a big focus when I was governor. Gasoline was 90 cents a gallon in my last couple of years in office, so it wasn't something we really looked at. But I've come to realize how vulnerable we are because something like 85 or 90% of all the energy used in Maine comes from fossil fuels, almost 80% from oil, of which we have zip zero. That makes us incredibly vulnerable, not only in terms of supply of just plain running out, but also price every time. Here's an easy calculation. You drive down, you look at how much gasoline is. Every time gasoline goes up 10 cents, or home heating oil 10 cents, that's $100 million a year out of the Maine economy. 10 cents a dollar, which it's gone up in the past year or so, is a billion dollars a year that just evaporates out of the Maine economy. And it's money that people don't have to spend at stores and at, you know, at the mall or going to the movies or anything else. It's an enormous economic impact. So, you know, my conclusion from that is we gotta do something. And if there's any one characteristic I have, it's like I like doing things and not talking about things. And that's what led Rob Gardner and I to go into wind power.

Angus King:

Well, and wind power happens to be something we have. We're not lucky enough to be, you know, over A big pot of oil or natural gas. And hydropower and wind power are the indigenous. And wood, wood pellets and biomass, that's what we have. And I found a wonderful speech by Joshua Chamberlain when he was governor in 1867. And he's talking to the Maine legislature, and he has this. He was an incredible writer, and he talks about there is in Maine power to the millions of horsepowers that now passes unfettered to the sea. And he's talking about the rivers, the hydropower. And this was 1867, when they were just figuring out how to tap hydropower. And basically he was saying, this is something we have and we should take advantage of it. And to me, wind power is the same idea. We have the biggest wind resource in New England. Is it a panacea? Can it supply all our power? Absolutely not. But it's part of the solution. And we Americans tend to look for one big solution, the silver bullet. You know, it's going to solve everything. My friend Lori Lachance up in Augusta at the Maine Development foundation, coined the term silver buckshot, which I like much better because that's how you solve problems, is with a lot of smaller answers which added together, get us out of a particular dilemma. And this energy thing, I mean the long term, and I don't know whether that's three years, five years, 10 years, but the long term is the definition of unsustainable.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Isn't it also about making choices? It's not as much about what you choose to do oftentimes as what you choose not to do.

Angus King:

That's right. And we often don't. That's exactly right. We often don't think. Think that way. We say, well, we don't want wind power. Okay, we don't want wind power. And you think, okay, I'm saying no to wind power. But really what you're doing when you say that is we're saying yes to oil or yes to natural gas or yes to nuclear. It is a choice. And that's what I say to people. There are lots of opponents of wind power, and I say, sure, if you don't like wind power, tell me what you want. Because there is no, no impact solution to a problem of this magnitude. You're not going to be able to caulk a few windows and solve our energy problem. That's part of the solution. But anything we do, particularly when we're talking about producing power, is going to involve change. It's going to involve something different than we are doing now unless we really are happy with what we're doing now, which is putting a lot of junk up into the atmosphere and the cost is going to continue to escalate. There was a wonderful quote from this prince in Saudi Arabia on CNN last summer, late last spring, and he said, we want to lower the price of oil a bit because we're afraid that the west will find alternatives, so we're going to lower. In other words, he's betting on us being dumb.

Genevieve Morgan:

Right. It's that old question of who are you going to serve? I think Bob Dylan wrote about that.

Angus King:

Yeah. And you know, where do you want to mail your money?

Genevieve Morgan:

And it's interesting to think about it that we've in Maine, we've really taken to heart the Buy Local motto for our agriculture with all the CSAs that are cropping up. And what you're really talking about is Buy local for our energy.

Angus King:

Yes, but it's got to be competitive. And Governor LePage, I think to his credit, is worried about price. It's got to be roughly competitive. And right now the dilemma we face is that natural gas is at the lowest price it's been in probably 50 years, adjusted for inflation. I mean, in the summer of 08 it was $12.6amillion BTUs. Today it's 350. That's amazing. And so the danger, as I see it, is that we say, oh, natural gas, and we retrofit all our houses and we do all our power plants and then all of a sudden natural gas, of which we have none, starts to go up and then we're stuck. Once again, to me, the answer is some kind of diversity is to have a diversity of sources. I think I'm a big believer in natural gas. I help facilitate the new pipeline down from Nova Scotia. But I do think it's dangerous to go to become 60 or 70% dependent on natural gas again because we don't have any of it and it's a worldwide commodity. Wait till the Chinese. Here's an interesting thing. I don't know if you all remember a few years ago there were all these so called LNG plants proposed in Maine, one up in Eastport, one in Harpswell, where they were going to bring gas in on ships, compressed, then decompress it, put it into the pipeline. It was going to be natural gas. I predict we're going to see the reverse and we're going to be sending natural gas to China in ships and then it becomes a worldwide commodity and then the price starts to go up just like oil.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So this is interesting because what you're also saying is work with what you have and conserve those valuable resources.

Genevieve Morgan:

And

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you wrote this book, Governor's How I Left Politics, Learned to Back Up a Bus and Found America. And that is sort of about working what you have with what you have as an individual. That you actually went in there and you started driving your own bus around.

Angus King:

Well, it had been a very intense eight years and Mary and I started thinking, two or three years before the end of the term, what do we do? What comes next? And we sort of stumbled on this idea of the RV trip. And it turned out, in retrospect, I wish I could say we were brilliant and had this carefully conceived plan. It was sort of accidental, but it was the right thing because it provided us an opportunity to refocus on family, to get away, to have a change of, literally a change of view of, of scenes, of everything. It got me out of Maine so I didn't have to sit and read the newspaper about what I was being blamed for and all that. And for me it was a great transition because it had its own kind of intensity, but it was different. In other words, instead of worrying about what the legislature was doing, I was worrying about whether the next RV park had a dump station. It was still important, occupied my time. I wasn't sitting and looking at the ceiling and sitting in a rocking chair. So it was great and it allowed us to sort of focus, bring our family back. Now I have to say, some of my anti wind and critics say, well, he drove around in this big bus and it used all this energy and everything. Well, that was our house. That was our house.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You weren't paying for the utilities that you needed to heat up your space.

Angus King:

That was our heat and water and electricity and everything else driving down the road. So. And it was a one time experience. And Mary and I are looking at a new RV that gets three times the gas mileage is much smaller and you know, so. But it was, it was an incredible experience to be with your family for five and a half months and that enclosed space and to see what an incredible country this is and to see what's going on all over the place. It put a lot of what we were dealing with in Maine in perspective. That was important too.

Genevieve Morgan:

I love it. It feels when you look at your book, it's like you lit out for the west.

Angus King:

Well, that's essentially what we did and we didn't. The biggest thing people say, well, what did you learn on your trip? And the biggest thing we learned was no plan, no Itinerary. We didn't sit in Maine and say, okay, on January 17th we're going to be in Charleston, and the 18th we're going to Savannah. It was all by the seat of the pants and according to the weather and tips. And that lifted a lot of stress off us. It made was an incredible, incredibly relaxing experience to have what amounted to 180 days of Saturday. And if the weather was bad one place, we unplugged and went somewhere else.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's interesting to me because one of the things that you have talked about is history and the importance of sort of looking backwards. But now you're looking forward and there's this enormous transition that took place in your life. Did you learn anything about transitions as you were going through this?

Angus King:

Oh, absolutely. I learned a lot. In fact, there's a little section in the book that's called Transitions, and I list a. A bunch of things. One is you need to think about transitions before they hit you so that you're not just sitting there. You don't want even one day of scratching your head and wondering what to do. You want to go right into something else. Secondly, you should sort of practice it if you think. For example, I've heard people say, well, when I retire, I'm going to take up golf, and that's what I'm going to do. You probably ought to try golf first, because you may not like it. And then where are you? We did a practice RV trip two or three years before this one. We flew out to Phoenix on the kids vacation and rented an RV and spent some time in Arizona riding around and deciding if this was something that was even remotely possible. So I think that's important. I think a transition, at least initially, should involve a change of physical space. We all associate our physical space with our current lives, and you need to sort of get away, literally. Jimmy Buffett, the great poet of our age, changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, and I think those are words to live by. Sort of like the weather is here. Wish you were beautiful. You know, I don't want to go too far into Jimmy Buffett, but we'd

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

like to hear you start singing at

Angus King:

some point, if you're willing. No, you don't. No, definitely.

Genevieve Morgan:

All right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, John, our audio guy, is always catching us on mic singing, so if you could do that for us, we'd be happy to have it.

Angus King:

No, because it would be very hard on your listeners and your ratings. That would be it. But anyway, yeah, you need to think about transitions, and it's an important Part of life. And the other thing I tell people is if you do see a time in your life, whether it's a time we between jobs or you have a summer off for some reason, go off and do something like this, we just loved it. It was just a great experience. And this country is fascinating and you learn something everywhere you go.

Genevieve Morgan:

I'm wondering when you're talking about transitions and you can click the lens back. I mean, it feels very much like our country is in transition right now. And there are a lot of people listening who are struggling, they've lost their jobs or their. They feel at risk. And it can be a very incapacitating feeling. I know Lisa treats a lot of people in her practice who feel physically stuck, and a lot of that is due to outside environment. And I'm wondering if you have any advice for our listeners out there. I like what you said about just do something. How do you get to that point?

Angus King:

Well, you know that moment in the morning when you wake up and you're lying in bed and you're awake, but you're not quite ready to get up and you start thinking about things.

Genevieve Morgan:

Yeah.

Angus King:

Obsessing, bad idea. And I guess I would, you know, the lesson there is get right up. I mean, we all have that experience and it always gets you all anxious and worried about the day. So the thing you ought to do is just get up. I think the same lesson applies to life in general. Don't sit around obsessing and thinking about all those things. Get going, do something. And, you know, somebody said to me, you know, how are you doing? How are you enjoying retirement? And I said, I'm flunking retirement. You know, I'm very busy doing a lot of things. And I frankly like to look on my schedule one day and find when I don't have something going on. But I think keeping occupied is a. Is a key thing. And there's no end to things you can get involved with. I mean, just everything from, you know, Leon Gorman left running L.L. beans, and now he works in the soup kitchen at Preble Street. I mean, and I'm sure he finds that very engaging and rewarding. He's been doing it for some years. So it really sort of doesn't matter what it is except that it's important to do something. We need to be refocused on what's really important, you know, what's important to us, what do we need to live comfortably. And it doesn't mean you got to turn the thermostat down and be cold in the dark and kind of thing. But what do we really value? A trip like ours was a tremendous experience for me because it made me think about this was this little family and that was what was really important. The other important experience for me was when I was in my late 30s, I had two young children, I came down with a rare and rather dangerous form of cancer and made the mistake of going. We didn't have Google in those days. So I went to the medical library and read about it and it said survival rate 50%. And I did survive. But that experience was very profound because it makes everything else. You know, it's like, don't sweat the small stuff. And everything is small stuff. You say, you know, we made it through this. The legislature didn't like a bill I submitted. Yeah, okay, I can live with that. So again, it's perspective and, and trying to figure out what's important. I think the best days of America are ahead of us. We're incredibly creative, energetic, adaptable people. But part of it has to be that we have to face reality and understand that it involves choices and change is hard.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, change is hard, but we know that you've helped us through a lot of changes in the state of Maine. I've read your book and I appreciate the changes that you've documented along the way with yourself and your family. And I appreciate your coming in and talking to us today. Genevieve Morgan and I are very happy to have you in the studio with us.

Angus King:

Well, it's been fun and maybe it was. Jane, your producer, sent me an email and said we want to give you time to get into a talkative mood. And I emailed back and said that's never been a problem, so thanks for the opportunity.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast, we feature a segment we call Maine Magazine Minutes, which is hosted by Genevieve Morgan.

Genevieve Morgan:

Thanks, Lisa. I'm delighted to have Michael Stoddard in the studio today. Michael is the first Executive Director of the Efficiency maine Trust. On July 1, 2010, the trust became the successor to all funds and programs of Efficiency Main, including the electric and gas conservation programs, the Energy and Carbon Savings, or RGGI Trust, and most energy related projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Trust's mission is to help Maine consumers save energy, save money, meet environmental goals and stimulate the state's economy by administering cost effective energy efficiency and alternative energy programs. Welcome to the studio, Michael.

Michael Stoddard:

Thanks very much, Jen.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, I have to say that the show today is Green Streets and you're doing a lot to keep Maine green.

Michael Stoddard:

We are. We're doing a lot. We've had an incredible first year on the job, which we completed. Our facility fiscal year ends in June and we just finished our annual report several weeks ago on our first year and we just had a record breaking year, so we're thrilled about that.

Genevieve Morgan:

What does that mean when you say record breaking?

Michael Stoddard:

Well, most importantly, we saved the most amount of energy on people's electric and oil bills of any prior year of the program, so we are thrilled to be able to deliver that.

Genevieve Morgan:

So you actually helped keep money in people's pockets?

Michael Stoddard:

Yeah. People save energy when they implement energy efficiency improvements to their home or their business. And when they do that, more of the money stays in their pocket instead of being sent out of state to buy another gallon of oil or another kilowatt hour of electricity.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

do you think that Maine people are more interested in energy conservation and being green? I'm looking at the January February issue of Maine Home and Design. Of course, this is the sister or brother publication to Maine Magazine and the Portland Public Library. Just had Scott Simons architects come in and do energy efficiency work. So this is a business, a big business in the middle of Portland that's doing this and you're talking about individuals that are doing this. Do you think that Maine in general is more progressive when it comes to energy conservation?

Michael Stoddard:

I do. There's a culture of conservation in this state that goes back hundreds of of years. I mean, you didn't make it through the winter if you weren't conscious of your energy needs. That started long before we had oil or oil crises or oil price spikes. We've always worried about having enough fuel to get through the winter and, you know, you could labor away cutting one more cord of wood. Or you might say, you know, I think I got enough wood. What if I spent a little more time filling up the cracks in my log cabin or in my house? I live in a 1927 home. So it's got some cracks in it that could be filled too. It's actually going to be cheaper for me to focus on filling up those cracks and insulating than it is to go out and buy that next unit of fuel. So what we learned from this program we ran last year to help folks weatherize their homes is that for an average cost of $1.16 per gallon, you can save a gallon of oil through energy conservation.

Genevieve Morgan:

That's a massive number.

Michael Stoddard:

You want to go buy it from your oil dealer, it's going to cost you $3.65 a gallon. So for about a third the cost, you can button up your home and be more comfortable and more healthy in your home than you would be if you went out and bought another gallon of supply.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've just come off this great year. What's ahead for Efficiency Main?

Michael Stoddard:

Well, I think the program we are most excited about is the PACE loan program. So while we do not have rebates that we can offer homeowners who want to weatherize their homes, we do have the PACE loan program. If people go to efficiencymaine.com PACE, PACE, they'll find out all the information about how to qualify for a loan if they want to borrow the money to make these improvements. We find that on average the cost of paying for the loan is less than the monthly cost of the energy that you save. So that's a great deal. We're also really pleased to be helping the governor's initiative to weatherize some low income homes so we can reduce the burden on LIHEAP customers in Maine because we're disappointed that we're getting less money from the federal government this year than we have in the past. But we're helping to mitigate the impacts of that by helping to weatherize more homes of low income customers.

Genevieve Morgan:

I have one last question for you, Michael, because I know you were born and bred and raised in Maine. What's kept you in our state? You have studied elsewhere. You've come back to do this job in Maine. Is there any. What's the motivation to stay here and do this here?

Michael Stoddard:

Well, anyone who lives here now knows the great things that this state offers. You know, we have such a fantastic natural resource all around us. You have the ocean, you have the mountains, you have the rivers and lakes. So our family likes getting outside as much as we can. I think. You know, you talked about the culture of people here that look to conserve are very sensitive about their impact and their commitment. I think, you know I've been living in I grew up in Brunswick. I live in the Portland community now. I love the fact that I see people I knew from when I was growing up. My dad still lives in Brunswick, so I'm connected to his friends. I'm connected to my friends. My kids now are of an age where I'm connecting with them and their family, so that's very special to me. And to and to be able to make a contribution to improving the quality of life and the quality of the economy here is a real privilege.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, thank you so much, Michael, for the work that you do in our state and also for coming to our studio.

Michael Stoddard:

Thanks for having me.

Genevieve Morgan:

To learn more about individuals like Michael Stoddard making an impact in our state, explore the pages of Maine Magazine online at the Maine Mag, or pick up our recent issue at a local newsstand near you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

On the Bountiful Blog I spend time, well, trying to, on a daily basis, if not daily, at least several times a week, pondering some of the questions that I have found impact my own health, the health of my patients, and the world around us. One of my recent interests has been physics, because what we're finding is that science is beginning to back up things that perhaps we've thought might be so for a very long time. And this blog post is called Quantum Entanglement. It is from December 16, 2011. It can be found on bountifulpath.com Quantum entanglement can we remain connected to and impacted by another being, even when that being is not nearby? Emotionally, this seems to be so physically? Well, this might be possible too. It certainly is the case for particles. The Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck in Austria has done studies showing that when two or more particles are entangled, they retain a connection. If an action is performed on one particle, its linked partner will also respond. It has been suggested that these same particles could continue to respond to one another from across galaxies. This idea, which has been labeled quantum entanglement, is a bit difficult to prove, but it is a fascinating proposition nonetheless. After all, humans are large collections of electrically active particles. We are our own walking, talking galaxies, and our galaxies can't help but be impacted by by the galaxies of other walking, talking beings. Anyone who has ever known love, whether for a significant other, a child, a family member, or a friend, knows how vulnerable a galaxy can be. It is good to know that this vulnerability may be explainable via physics. For those of us who tend to fault ourselves for wearing our hearts on our sleeves, it's nice to have something to justify our energetic bewilderment. After all, we now have the science of entanglement to back us up. Read this blog post and others like it at bountifulpath.com.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

On our Green Streets Show. Give Back we featured Doug Welch, the Executive Director of the Main Island Trail Association. The Main island trail is a 375 mile waterway extending from the New Hampshire border on the west to Machias Bay on the east. The trail winds its way along the coast, around magnificent and exposed capes, through protected saltwater rivers and quiet bays, and among islands large and small. It includes over 180 islands and mainland sites along the route available for day visits or overnight camping. Thank you for coming in, Doug. The Main Island Trail association has been in existence for several decades now. How did this all come to be?

Doug Welch:

Well, the original recognition came in the mid to late 1980s that Maine had an incredible resource of thousands of islands off the coast that were not inhabited in many cases. Obviously there are a sizable handful that are inhabited and have been for a long time, but that they were truly spectacular places that very few states, if any, can rival. And yet the islands really weren't being cared for systematically, let alone used recreationally in any coherent way. So a vision was put forth that there could be a waterway for small boaters. So, getting to your metaphorical street, the idea is a waterway, and at the time there was not such a thing as a water trail. That word didn't exist. If you talk to a modern boater about a water trail, they all know exactly what you mean. But then it was described simply as a waterway for small boaters so the idea, it started off with about 30 publicly owned islands, islands that were owned by the state that people had camped on or used for different traditional purposes, and gradually grew by bringing in privately owned islands, islands owned by families, sometimes for many generations, that were for one reason or another, were not used regularly, but was a piece of property that they maintained. So they were willing to allow people to come out and recreate on them, camp, picnic, et cetera, as long as they would do so appropriately, so long as they would leave no trace in the process. And that's exactly what the Main Island Trail association is all about. We've been doing that, as you said, for 24 years now.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

If so much of the support for Maine Island Trail comes from volunteers, how can people get involved?

Doug Welch:

Well, the first thing. So we're an association, we're a membership organization. We've got about 3,500 members and we rely on that as being our primary means of communicating with people. So if you join the Main Island Trail association and you can go to mita.org that's mita.org to learn how to join, you'll get all the benefits of membership, which include, first and foremost, people often think about our guidebook, which is a 250 page guide to the islands themselves and what you can do when you get there and what the owner asks that you not do. If you know there's some islands you can build a campfire on, some you can't. So that's the first step in getting involved, is to become a member. If you'd like to check us out in some other way, we also do public volunteer outings where we'll go and clean the beaches of an entire, say, Casco Bay's islands in a day. We do that twice a year, although people should know that those tend to be oversubscribed. We don't end up having to look too hard to fill our boats. There's something very rewarding about walking on a beach, looking around and just cleaning it up. And everybody knows about the dangers of plastics that are getting entangled with various marine life, let alone just the idea that you, when you have a pristine place like a little island, it feels like a little planet almost unto itself. And so if you're part of cleaning it up, you can very tangibly walk away that day and say, we left a little piece of the earth incredibly beautiful and somebody's going to arrive here tomorrow to visit and feel like they're the first people who ever set foot here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Are the trails open all year? Long.

Doug Welch:

We have members who are out there year round, which I will tell you, I'm not one of them. I'm a fair weather boater. But we do, on a day like today, there are surely people out on the water. We don't necessarily recommend that for people who are not extremely expert and trained in cold water conditions. But yes, nothing closes down officially. It's just becomes more difficult.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thank you for being with us today, Doug. I'm sure our listeners will be inspired by our conversation and want to learn more about your organization.

Doug Welch:

Absolutely. Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thank you for listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast this week. Our theme was Green Streets. We had the good fortune to interview former Governor of Maine Angus King, Michael Stoddard of Efficiency, Maine and Dennis Welch of Maine Island Trail. Each of these individuals gave us their take on keeping the streets on which we walk green. And we also talked somewhat about the notion of doing something starting where you are and doing something to live mindfully on this planet. We began with the quote and as part of our deep dish, go forth on your path as it exists only through your walking, which comes from St. Augustine as read from our daily Tread. The importance of doing so, of course, is that it impacts not only us when we go forth in our walking, but those around us, because we are indeed all entangled in a quantum or otherwise way to those in our world thank you for listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast this week. For those who are listening to the first time and have not subscribed yet, we hope that you will do so and get our show sent to your inbox on a weekly basis. Go to our website Dr. Lisa.org for more information on our show on my own medical practice and of the many good things that we're hoping to accomplish in the world and that indeed we are accomplishing in the world. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. Thank you for being a part of our world. May you have a bountiful life.

Michael Stoddard:

It.