Paul LePage

Touting its vast forests and his administration’s ability to cut through red tape, Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday pitched Maine as the perfect place for bioenergy executives to make investments. LePage offered his remarks to open the third day of the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference in San Francisco. The conference, which drew a crowd of more than 300, was convened to bring together investors, researchers, policymakers, executives and others interested in tapping renewable natural resources for new industrial uses.  …“I want to be sure that the word is out there that we are open for business,” LePage told the crowd. He noted that the state supports 24,000 forest-related jobs, down about half from when all the mills were running and robust.