Action on climate bill demanded
11/19/09 | 21 comments

Action on climate bill demanded


Conservation, sporting groups air concerns
By John Holyoke
BDN Staff
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY BRIDGET BROWN
Ray “Bucky” Owen, the former commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, holds a bass lure while speaking at a news conference urging Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to support legislation that would curb pollution to combat climate change and protect Maine’s natural resources. The conference was held Wednesday at the Penobscot County Conservation Association in Brewer. The bill, titled “The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act” has passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and is being debated in the Senate. Buy Photo

BREWER, Maine — Representatives of several conservation and sporting organizations, as well as the Penobscot Indian Nation, gathered Wednesday morning to send their own message on climate change legislation they say has languished in the U.S. Senate after being passed by the House of Representatives in June.

“[The Senate needs] to act. The world is watching. We can’t wait. The time is now,” said Clinton “Bill” Townsend of Canaan, summing up the sentiments of the group, which assembled to urge Maine’s senators to back passage of the legislation.

Townsend, who has served on the board of many major conservation groups in the state over the years and who has hunted and fished in Maine for more than 50 years, was among those who spoke at a press conference arranged by the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

The NRCM event at the Penobscot County Conservation Association offices mirrored movements across the nation, as more than 600 conservation groups have signed on to requests for the Senate to pass a version of The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.

The legislation would limit greenhouse gas emissions, create new emission permit rules, and provide incentives for the creation of renewable energy sources and “clean” energy jobs. Critics say it will cause higher energy bills.

Eight speakers at Wednesday’s event made statements in support of the legislation.

Although not all Americans believe that climate change or global warning is a legitimate threat, those assembled Wednesday are convinced that the nation must move quickly to meet what they consider a global challenge.

Speakers pointed to a recent Critical Insights survey that showed Mainers said they want their senators to vote for legislation that reduces the threat of climate change and promotes clean energy development.

In that survey, 77 percent of respondents said they wanted Snowe and Collins to vote for the legislation while 13 percent wanted them to vote against it and another 9 percent answered “don’t know.”

Along party lines, Democrats were most apt to want their senators to vote in favor of climate change and clean energy legislation: 93 percent of Democratic Party respondents, 79 percent of independents and 57 percent of Republicans wanted their senators to approve legislation.

“I look with a great deal of frustration and dismay when I see what’s happening [in Washington],” said Dick Ruhlin of Brewer, a former state senator and current chairman of the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission. “I see people saying, ‘Well, is global warming really there? Is it really happening?’ I say to them, ‘The jury of scientific knowledge is in, it’s reported, and it is happening. It’s 99 percent agreed upon [by] those people who deal with that. The time for a delay is over. The time for action is now.”

John Banks, the director of natural resources for the Penobscot Nation, agreed.

“We’re at a very, very important, critical crossroads right now. The good news is, it’s not too late to fix the global climate problem,” he said.

After prepared remarks concluded, speakers said they thought that proposed emission controls that would be focused on the coal and oil businesses would be points of contention in the Senate legislative battle.

But they said the challenge must be met.

Ray “Bucky” Owen, a former faculty member at the University of Maine and former commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said Maine has a unique and diverse array of fish, plants and wildlife, and Mainers should pay close attention to climate change issues.

Some animals, such as moose, are at the southern edge of their habitat range, Owen said. Others don’t exist much farther north than Maine.

“If climate change continues and global warming continues, we will have much more of a homogenous group of species,” Owen said. “We’ll be like other states. Right now people come to Maine because they enjoy the diversity of wildlife … that we have.”

Ken Elowe, the director of resource management at the DIF&W, said any global climate woes will have a huge effect on Maine, its communities and its wildlife.

“What you’ve heard here today is a microcosm of the importance of fish and wildlife to the state of Maine,” Elowe said. “It is part of a natural resource availability that is the state of Maine, that we have nothing else. This is what the state of Maine is.”

Elowe said natural resources represent billions of dollars in the state’s economy each year.

“It is the lifeblood. It is why people live here. It’s why people visit here. It’s why they come here to be renewed. So it’s much more important than the dollars could ever signify,” Elowe said.

Elowe said one Maine program, Beginning With Habitat, is a cooperative effort between the state and landowners that has been used as a model for national initiatives. The goal is to build a resilient landscape that can adapt to changing climates, over time, that he says are likely inevitable at some level.

Funding for national programs like Beginning With Habitat is essential, and could be funded by the legislation in question, he said.

Ruhlin said that the existing House bill, which was approved, and the Senate legislation under consideration would be consolidated after approval. U.S. Reps. Michael Michaud and Chellie Pingree supported the measure. Worrying too much about potential changes to the legislation as it progresses is counterproductive, Ruhlin said.

“We have a major problem that affects not just the wildlife and the recreation, but it affects our entire planet,” Ruhlin said. “I think it’s gone beyond the point of nit-picking. [We shouldn’t say] ‘I don’t quite like this. I don’t quite like that.’ We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the needed.”

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Comments
21 comments on this item
On 11/18/09 at 8:39 PM, dlaurels wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I am in total agreement with these people -- the US Senate should get with it and pass the legislation that we desperately need.

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On 11/18/09 at 9:43 PM, schoonerdog wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! There is NO proof of man made global warming! There is NO proof that this legislation would do anything to diminish the effects of global warming. All this legislation would do is make this country non competitive in the world economy, destroy this country's economy, and keep US in perpetual dependence of countries like China for goods. We must do everything we can to strengthen our economy, not destroy it. There are many who need jobs to make money to support families. This bill would move more jobs out of this country than any deregulation that is blames on Reagan and both Bushes........

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On 11/18/09 at 11:19 PM, scottcom36 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Well, I demand INaction for the bill because I know that man made climate change is a scam and a hoax.

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On 11/19/09 at 4:41 AM, mAineAc wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Weather changes, has always changed, and will continue to change long after we are gone.

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On 11/19/09 at 6:16 AM, chicky wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

when will the penobscot nation realize, like tribes in the west, that enviromentalists use them for land grabbing? once the endangered atlantic salmon comes up into the penobscot they will realize what they have helped create..of course then it will be too late. sad.

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On 11/19/09 at 6:50 AM, Coolfusion wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Insanity on steroids.

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On 11/19/09 at 9:36 AM, Gopher wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

It's almost imposiible to prove anything true but those trained in absolutist or certanty thinking will contiunue to require proof ("Don't confuse me with probablitites, will it rain tomorrow or, not, 100% please"). There's a lot of evidence to show that mankind's activites are contributing to climate change; there is no one cause. One again, ask those who live on the land in the affected areas. If you don't trust the Penobscots, ask the Inuit. Alaskans, and other Artic/sub-Arctic dwelllers.

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On 11/19/09 at 10:02 AM, elmster wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

man made climat change = al gores way to make money if he trully thought what he said was true, he would ahve stoped eating meat, stoped flying in private jst and stoped breathing after all according to him thoose are the three worst things you can do

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On 11/19/09 at 11:55 AM, fmrmti wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Main thrust of the story doesn't come till paras 4 and 5. C'mon guys...BLUF in a good news story. I would really read the whole paper if it weren't so much work!

Oh, and by the way...wood-fueled furnaces and gas-powered boat motors are next on their list. Be careful what you wish for. Yet ANOTHER inconvenient truth!

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On 11/19/09 at 12:02 PM, JoeDoe wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Global warming is 99% agreed upon Dick? UM.......maybe in your head. My heavens. Show the public the facts you are working with and they might listen. Observing the weather is just as much proof against global warming as anything. but of course, if you believe Al Gore. Global cooling is also caused by Global warming.

Do these idiots understand what they are proposing is more taxes and job killing? Yeah thats what maine needs now. more regulations to chase businesses and jobs away.

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On 11/19/09 at 12:51 PM, johnfromorono wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Hey Chicky, do you know what the Penobscot Nation's environmental agenda is ? Maybe they're using the enviro groups to help accomplish THEIR agenda ?

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On 11/19/09 at 1:07 PM, MaineAuntie wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Those that demand proof that global warming is happening need to start providing their facts that it isn't happening.

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On 11/19/09 at 1:16 PM, fmrmti wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

It is happening...as it's happened before and will again. Cows damage the planet more than we do...that's the problem.

When the Danes screamed that Global Warming was causing one of their glaciers to recede, they made such a big deal about how it exposed the remnants of a town that had been hidden for over 400 years. Wait a minute...people were living there then? What kind of cars did THEY drive?

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On 11/19/09 at 1:47 PM, JJacob wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Bucky Owen and his fellow protester are absolutely dead wrong. They could not be any more misguided about global warming if they tried. They have been fooled by dishonest politicians and agenda-driven scientists who are now having their bogus claims revealed as fraud.

In this article, scientist from the Leibniz Marine Institute of Marine Sciences and the Max Plank institute for Meteorology now admit they don’t really know what they thought they knew about world climate:

“Cimatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out”

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662092,00.html

“Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last ten years.” (since the 1990s)

“Global warming is taking a break…There can be no argument about that…we have to face that fact.”

“The earth’s average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as if global warming could come to a standstill this year.”

It’s way past time for these ‘conservationists’ and ‘environmentalists’ to find another issue. This one has obviously run its course.

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On 11/19/09 at 1:55 PM, fmrmti wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Yet another Inconvenient Truth!

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On 11/19/09 at 2:57 PM, budmaninheat wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Go Back to Bed Bucky... Or go to China and tell them to quit polluting. Here in Maine we would like to keep the 3 or 4 jobs we have......

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On 11/19/09 at 10:09 PM, captainandy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The only action I want is to see a net thrown over these people. They're suffering from mental illness.

"If you don't trust the Penobscots,"....

Why would I trust the Penobscots on climate science. Do they posess special powers?!?

No. They have fat children addicted to video games and crappy tv, just like everybody else!

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On 11/19/09 at 10:18 PM, captainandy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Wearing the ole' red wool plaid makes Bucky look authentic. I'd like to see him put that Bass lure to good use and clean up those trash fish. On his watch, every lake and pond in the state was illegally polluted with Bass introductions......

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On 11/19/09 at 11:26 PM, captainandy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Ten years ago we were warned, if we didn't act NOW!, it would be too late.

Here's the latest on Global Warming, excuse me....."climate change" and how it has stalled and baffled scientists.

Go Figure!

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662092,00.html

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On 11/20/09 at 4:01 PM, mrwaldo wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

A great example of Anti-societal behavior.....equal to jeffery dahmer, or the Ft. Hood shooter.

Thier actions are way outside what is normal and is harful to many....

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On 11/28/09 at 9:38 PM, winterportman wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Isn't it just amazing? Climategate happens and not a mention in the BDN or on the TV stations. I read last week that the "hole in the ozone" was keeping things colder in Antarctica. How odd. This is supposed to be the same hole that is allowing our planet to heat up. These guys can't even keep the stories straight on "global warming."

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