The change in Maine will be staggering – not once since the first comprehensive environmental statutes were passed in the 1970’s has there been a Republican governor and a Republican controlled Legislature.
Governor-elect Paul LePage’s rhetoric on the campaign trail was alarmingly anti-environmental. Beyond staking his election on dismantling Maine’s agencies tasked with safeguarding our environment, he has bluntly expressed support for offshore oil drilling in the wake of the worst oil spill ever experienced by our country. He supports building wildly expensive new nuclear power plants. Rather mind-numbing is the fact that he considers climate change to be at the least, subject to scientific debate if not outright denying it. And he opposes sustainable wind development. Even more problematic is a pervasive sense that he simply doesn’t “get it” – doesn’t get the concept of sustainability, doesn’t get the economic value of a strong and vibrant environment and doesn’t get Mainers abiding conviction that ours is a unique state that merits strong efforts to maintain.
The Conservation Law Foundation has always believed that a thriving Maine is the result of strong environmental protections and sound economic principles. That belief – and CLF’s unique ability to translate it into practical, effective and results-oriented advocacy – will be more important than ever as a new administration attempts to dismantle the environmental protections of the last four decades.
Read the complete story from The Conservation Law Foundation.