AUGUSTA, Maine — Environmental advocates on Tuesday decried dozens of bills that they said are part of a sweeping agenda to roll back laws aimed at protecting Maine’s natural resources.
The Natural Resources Council of Maine released a list of the “50 worst bills” that speakers said represent “the most serious and sweeping rollbacks of environmental regulations we have ever seen.”
NRCM’s “50 worst” bills include measures to repeal the bottle bill, eliminate the Land Use Regulation Commission, repeal laws aimed at removing toxic chemicals from consumer products and rewrite shoreland zoning laws.
“The list literally goes on and on,” said Pete Didisheim, NRCM’s advocacy director. “Some of the bills overlap with the governor’s proposals, but many are completely different and go beyond even those extreme measures.”
Environmental groups are gearing up for high-profile battles on a number of proposals put forward by Gov. Paul LePage and members of the Republican-controlled Legislature.
LePage’s proposals include abolishing the Board of Environmental Protection, repealing the recommended ban on the chemical bisphenol A and lessening restrictions on development around vernal pools.
LePage has said those measures and others in his regulatory reform agenda are necessary to lessen the bureaucratic burden on small businesses as the administration works to improve Maine’s business climate, which Forbes magazine ranked as 50th in the nation last year.
The governor said the majority of proposed reforms emerged from suggestions gathered at “red tape audit” meetings held by local chambers of commerce throughout the state. But environmentalists suggest that many of the changes could harm Maine’s economy by weakening the laws that protect Maine’s natural resources and scenic beauty.
Among the bills included in the “50 worst” list are measures that would:
- Put in place a 5-year statute of limitations for enforcement of violations of Maine’s environmental laws.
- Reduce the current 250-foot, restricted development buffer in shoreland zones to 75 feet.
- Abolish LURC, which regulates development in the Unorganized Territory, and transfer the agency’s responsibilities over to counties.
Lisa DeHart, a registered Maine guide who lives in Gardiner, said tourists come to Maine’s North Woods because of the state’s good stewardship of the resource and because such vast landscapes of forests cannot be found anywhere else in the eastern U.S.
“Maine will lose an industry that we pretty much have locked up on the East Coast,” DeHart said.
Sean Mahoney, Maine director of the Conservation Law Foundation, said enacting a 5-year limitation on enforcement of environmental laws would leave the state and taxpayers shouldering the burden for contamination that was hidden from sight for years.
Speakers at a Tuesday press conference acknowledged that many of the measures — such as abolishing LURC and rewriting shoreland zoning laws — are perennial issues in the Legislature.
But last November’s election, during which Republicans won both the Blaine House and control of both the House and Senate, means the political currents have changed in Augusta.