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MIKE TIPPING: LePage proposals would dismantle Maine’s environmental legacy

“I believe in real, strong environmental laws,” Gov. Paul LePage announced to a room full of environmentally-minded Mainers a little more than a week ago. “I would never challenge a strong environmental law that’s based in science.”

Four days later, LePage launched a broadside against Maine’s environmental protections, targeting for elimination virtually every state environmental law and regulation in existence, regardless of their scientific merit, importance to Maine’s economy and citizen health, or even their bipartisan support.

The changes he proposed to the regulatory reform committee would rezone 3 million acres of wilderness for development, allow toxic chemicals back into children’s toys and baby bottles, lower air and water pollution standards, reduce fines for polluters, eliminate the Board of Environmental Protection and shift the burden for recycling electronic waste away from manufacturers and onto the people of Maine.

I’m not surprised that LePage is saying one thing and doing another. A series of very public misstatements and false claims over the past few months has made it clear that the governor plays fast and loose with the truth.

Nor am I surprised that LePage is attacking Maine’s environment. He made very clear during his campaign that he felt environmental protections were standing in the way of corporate expansion and profits.

What I am surprised at is the political audacity this move represents.

Maine is a state known for its clean environment. Much of our brand to the world relies on our scenic landscape and pure waterways, and much of our state industry, from bottled water to aquaculture to outdoor recreation and tourism, relies on a healthy environment.

Concern for Maine’s natural beauty and public health also has been a strong thread throughout our state’s political history.

When Edmund Muskie first won the governorship in 1954, he ran on a platform of better stewardship of Maine’s natural resources and stronger state laws protecting Maine rivers from industrial pollution. When he was elected to the U.S. Senate four years later, he brought those Maine values to Washington and sparked the beginning of the international environmental revolution.

Ever since, policies that respect the environment and the health of Maine people have been a mainstay of Maine politics. LePage’s proposals represent an unprecedented rejection of that legacy.

LePage’s reasons for proposing these changes aren’t exactly clear. The governor says they are meant to improve the state’s business climate, but most of the proposals wouldn’t help and might even hurt Maine’s economy.

A good example is the 2008 Kid-Safe Products Act, which was passed unanimously in the Maine Senate and with overwhelming bipartisan support in the Maine House.

The law seeks to protect children from toxic chemicals by making manufacturers disclose their use and allows the state to mandate the use of safer alternatives. So far, it has targeted hormone-disrupting chemicals Bisphenol A (BPA) and Nonylphenol-Ethoxylates.

This kind of law doesn’t hurt Maine’s economy. No company is going to decide to move operations here because it wants its employees to be able to buy sippy cups laced with toxic chemicals.

In fact, eliminating this law will prevent small Maine retail businesses from knowing what’s in the products they sell.

The only businesses this kind of regulatory change will help are out-of-state chemical and manufacturing companies that make toxic products.

So why would this kind of popular, effective law be targeted for repeal? One answer might be the political influence wielded by those same out-of-state corporations.

In 2010, two chemical manufacturing firms formed a PAC called Sound Science for Maine that pumped $20,000 into political campaigns and leadership PACs for politicians of both parties. The PAC, however, gave more funds to Republicans, including Speaker of the House Robert Nutting and Senate President Kevin Raye. Its largest contribution went to the Maine Senate Republican Majority PAC.

All this political history and political maneuvering brings us to where we are today: Set for a showdown between a 60-year legacy of environmental stewardship and a new Republican governor and Legislature backed by powerful political interests.

This could be the turning point in Maine’s environmental movement, the point at which the gains of the last decades are reversed and the attitude of the people of Maine shifts toward deregulation.

Or it could be the turning point for the LePage administration, the moment we look back to in four years and say that this is where he began to overreach, where he tried to go too far, too fast and was brought up short by the people of Maine.



Mike Tipping is a political junkie. He writes the Tipping Point blog on Maine politics at DownEast.com, his own blog at MainePolitics.net and works for the Maine People’s Alliance and the Maine People’s Resource Center. He’s @miketipping on Twitter. email: miketipping@gmail.com