Our new governor appears to be intent on undermining as many of our environmental protections as possible as quickly as possible. Therefore, the 62 percent of those people who did not vote for him need to be vigilant and do what can be done to protect the valuable assets that make Maine a place people want to live.

Certainly, jobs are important. They are, however, not going to be created by undermining decades-long, hard-fought-for protections of air and water quality, of forests and wetlands.

Gov. Paul LePage appears to have a very limited vision of the ways to create jobs and prosperity for all. His heavy-handed approach may work at managing Marden’s, but it’s not the way the majority of people want the state to be managed.

He apparently believes he has a mandate to run the state as he sees fit, and it is clear that his priority for the next four years will be in giving corporations and developers as much freedom from restrictions as he is able to manage.

Maine citizens need to do what they can to prevent the fouling of the air and water, destruction of forests and wetlands to satisfy interests of corporations and developers.

Joyce White, Stoneham