Paper mill officials lobby for fuel credit
Calling it the "worst period ever seen" for the paper industry, a co-owner of Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co. asked the Lincoln Town Council to support a federal alternative fuel tax credit that is crucial to the mill's solvency.
"It's the first time in the industry's history that every [paper industry] product has seen a decline in demand," said John Wissmann, Lincoln Paper and Tissue's CFO, reported the Bangor Daily News. "Absent these credits, I am not sure that we would be here today."
The federal tax credit, part of the 2005 federal highway bill, has been targeted for repeal in the U.S. Senate, a move opposed by Maine's delegation. Wissmann said his mill, plus others in Jay, Rumford and Palmyra, rely on the credits awarded for using renewable energy to produce the black liquor that helps power their operations. If the tax credit was repealed, he said several Maine mills would likely fold, and his mill, which employs roughly 400 people and pays Lincoln about $1 million in taxes annually, would need to make layoffs, according to the Daily News.
While his business partner, Keith Van Scotter, was in Washington, D.C., to lobby against the repeal, Wissmann asked the council and local residents to lobby in support of the delegation's position.
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