With just a week and five days to go before the November 6 vote on changing Wiscasset's height ordinance, the voices on both sides are getting shriller and shriller. Is there anyone out there who hasn't already made up his or her mind? I haven't, and I suspect I'm in the minority.

There are a host of problems with this proposed gasification plant and by now we're all weary of hearing about them. There are a host of possibilities for the town of Wiscasset, if this thing could be built and not hurt the environment. It's either doom and gloom or riches for everyone. I believe it's neither. Yes, this is the most beautiful place on earth, and we have to protect it, but we're starving economically. No one can say categorically that this plant can't be built without ruining the environment, any more than the developer can say he will reduce our taxes by over 80 percent and give us 200 jobs.

About a month ago, someone suggested that National RE/sources, the developer of the proposed $1.5 billion Twin River Energy Center, come up with a comparatively small amount of money (in comparison to the total cost of the plant which some say will be more like $3 billion or $4 billion) - say, $500,000 - to pay for an independent, unbiased, scientific study that would get us some answers to questions like coal storage, coal transportation, coal stockpiling, mercury emissions, keeping carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere, turbine engine noise, and water sources. I think most people have made up their minds about this, and until a genuinely objective source starts providing information, most people are operating on emotions, not information. If National RE/sources believes what they're telling us, they should be willing to prove it. What do you say, National RE/sources?