High energy costs hit rural Mainers hard

[jpak]

http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=165599&zoneid=500

AUGUSTA, Maine - While everyone in Maine is feeling the pain of higher energy prices on everything from gasoline to electricity, those in rural areas of the state are being squeezed even harder.

"Proportionately, this has a much bigger hit in rural areas," said University of Southern Maine economist Charles Colgan. "It takes a larger percentage of a person’s income for transportation in rural areas as people commute farther."

He said the combined factors of low incomes, high gas prices, electric rates that are among the highest in the country and the use of older and less fuel-efficient vehicles are squeezing rural Mainers even harder than the rest of the state. He said adding to the pain are higher food prices, which also are a reflection of the higher transportation costs in rural areas.

The most recent statistics available from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis show a huge disparity in personal income in Maine. The wealthiest county in the state is Cumberland with per capita personal income of $40,423 a year. The poorest counties are Oxford at $25,393 a year, Somerset at $25,428, Franklin at $25,543 and Washington at $26,148. Half of the counties in the state have per capita incomes of less than $30,000 year.

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[GreenPartyVoter]

1. As a rural Mainer I can attest this to be true. We actually quit making trips to

Bangor a couple of years ago and started consolidating our Ellsworth trips so that we would accomplish more than one thing while there (IE Church and grocery shopping, which we've cut back on due to high food prices) But even so, that only helped a small amount. We still have to travel around for other things, hubby travels all over the place every day due to the nature of his job, and this trailer is hard to keep warm/cool depending upon the season and there's just no money available to make efficiency improvements.

And I know a lot of my family, friends, and neighbors are all feeling the pain too. I am sure the same applies to rural folk all over the country. It's just tough right now. A lot of people think things will get better as they have in the past, but I suspect this is the new way of life.

[fight4my3sons]

2. We have spent more in gas this month than food.

We have to move now because of my husband's new job up in Rockland. The commute is killing us. Here in Phippsburg everything is at least a 7 mi one way trip into Bath to the store. Gas at the center store was $4.07 and at Pine Tree Service Station $4.20 (full service).