Larry King gets a shocker when guest star, Sarah Palin, makes an intelligent and logical pitch for mass transit in Maine!

Bottom line: If you don’t want to listen to us, at least listen to Sarah. The ZOOM proposal would expand mass transit between Maine’s largest cities, increasing the current service between Portland and Biddeford and Saco and adding routes between Portland and Lewiston/Auburn and Augusta–and with full buses and park-and-ride facilities at capacity, it’s a service that Maine commuters desperately need. The proposed bill, introduced in January, would increase commuter transit options, reduce household expenditures on gasoline and diesel, increase employment opportunities and productivity and reduce government expenditures.

Want to know more? Now’s the perfect time to get on board. Speak out in support of the ZOOM bill at a public hearing this Tuesday, March 22 at 1 p.m. at the State House in Augusta. Prior to the hearing, CLF and the Maine Alliance for Sustainable Transportation (MAST) will host a press conference beginning at noon in the same location. It’s the perfect chance to learn more, get your questions answered and hear straight from the bill’s co-sponsors why they think the ZOOM proposal is essential to Maine’s development. Details at www.clf.org/events.

ZOOM Press Conference
Tuesday March 22 at 12 p.m.
Welcome Center at the State House, Augusta, ME (map)

CLF and the Maine Alliance for Sustainable Transportation (MAST) will be hosting a press conference on the new bill to expand the ZOOM commuter bus service between Portland and York County and add new service between Portland and Lewiston and Auburn and between Portland and Augusta to keep up with rising demand.

Those in attendance will include Jane West, CLF staff attorney and steering committee member of MAST; Representatives Bradley Moulton (R-York) and Ben Chipman (I-Portland), both sponsors of the bill; Nicola Wells, communications director and organizer at the Maine League of Young Voters and steering committee member of MAST; and Christian MilNeil, citizen activist. Read the full media alert >

Learn more about ZOOM

Maine Turnpike Authority Executive Director Paul Violette steps down after 23 years at the MTA.

A well-entrenched leader who spent decades in power of a wealthy quasi-government agency just resigned amid a public outcry over extravagant spending.  No, this isn’t another North African country unshackling itself from an autocratic regime, it’s the Maine Turnpike Authority’s Executive Director, Paul Violette, stepping down after running the MTA for 23 years.

Legislators in Augusta sought Violette’s ouster in the wake of a report released in January by the state’s Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA). The watchdog report scrutinized MTA’s complex budget and spending practices and unearthed questionable expenses including spending $1.1 million for travel and meals for employees from 2005 to 2009 and other luxurious expenditures for MTA management.  And while it is these flashy expenses that have enraged the public, a more in depth review of the report reveals that much work is needed to create an atmosphere of transparency and accountability, especially with respect to what constitutes an operating surplus–how expenses and costs are categorized by the MTA has a direct and profound impact on the quality of Maine roads that aren’t operated by the MTA.  In response to the report, the MTA disagreed with OPEGA’s characterization of the operating surplus budgeting as “ambiguous.”

The operating surplus issue is one that has been neatly and powerfully addressed by Rep. Moulton’s ZOOM bill, LD 673, by requiring the MTA to provide MDOT with at least three percent of its operating revenue and any operating surplus.  In addition, the bill seeks to get the MTA to stop spending money on road widening and instead, reallocate funds towards mass transit that will serve far more Mainers, from York, Wells, Biddeford, Saco, Portland, Lewiston, Auburn and Augusta.  For years, the MTA has spent a mere pittance on mass transit; only $8 million out of a $666 million, 10-year operating budget.  With the management shake-up at MTA, we can hope that the days of squandering are over and the time for accountability has arrived, with an immediate focus on meeting the transit needs of Maine people.

Photo courtesy of NRCM

At a press conference held yesterday, CLF and our colleagues at the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) shined a spotlight on 50 bad bills that are now working their way through the state Legislature. If passed, these bills could:

• Open up the three million acres of the North Woods to development
• Repeal the ban on BPA and flame retardant chemicals that are hazardous to our health
• Allow big polluters to not be held accountable for cleaning up their own mess

A list of those bills is here, as are some media clips from Maine Public Broadcasting Network, the Portland Press Herald and the Lewiston Sun Journal related to yesterday’s conference.

The assault on Maine’s environmental protections continues, and we will continue to fight back—but we need your help. If you haven’t already, please add your voice to the effort by contacting your local legislator, submitting a letter to the editor to your local paper, or by becoming a member of CLF.

A new report from the Washington, D.C. –based Brookings Institution found that two of Maine’s metro areas drive 54% of the state’s economic output, amounting to $2.7 billion dollars in gross domestic product.  Portland-South Portland-Biddeford and the Lewiston-Auburn areas are also responsible for creating 51% of the jobs here in Maine, despite only accounting for 47% of the population.  Currently, the ZOOM bus service provides limited yet very successful service between Portland and Biddeford.

Representative Moulton’s bill, LD 673, “An Act to Expand Fiscally Responsible Transportation Through Increased ZOOM Bus Service,” seeks to improve that existing service and add a much needed route up to the economic hub of Lewiston-Auburn.  This critical and long overdue link would connect 106,539 L/A residents with 266,800 jobs in the Portland-Biddeford area, according to the Brookings Institution report.  The report notes that 60.4% of the state’s innovation workers are located in the Portland metro area.   Doesn’t it make sense to connect major population hubs with innovative jobs?  That is what the ZOOM bus bill contemplates, all with the comfort of modern wi-fi access to provide for a better connected, more productive work force.

The report also credits the Bangor area with 11% of the state’s economic output.  Imagine increasing bus service to the Bangor area after the successful implementation of the current bill to reach a trifecta of economic growth, job creation and mass transit.  According to the report, these metropolitan areas represent the engines of state economic growth and concentrate the assets critical to building the “Next Economy.”  And while that is very exciting news, the fact is, we can’t afford to ignore the mass transit connections that will help move the people of the state of Maine forward in a competitive economy.

One of the easiest ways to make bad decisions is to allow ourselves to be drawn into a false choice – to see two options as an “either/or” where seeking one goal means stepping away from another. This can be a false choice because, fortunately, sometimes making the right decision will yield a double benefit.

When we have an opportunity to reduce energy use and harmful emissions while building jobs and the economy we encounter that kind of golden moment: when the right choice yields double, triple and even quadruple benefits.

There are people who will reject this formulation – who will present that most fundamental of false choices: the flawed argument that making the right choice for our environment and the public health is bad for the economic health of our communities and building jobs.

We are surrounded by proof that economic benefit flows from the same actions that reduce dirty energy use and emissions. The nation-leading energy efficiency programs funded by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) which have created jobs while slashing the energy bills of families and businesses of the Northeast is a prime example.  A recent report issued by the states participating in RGGI (described here) provides hard numbers documenting this happy phenomena.

But we can do far better – and we need to if we are going to address the fundamental challenge of global warming and if we are going build the new economic base that can provide jobs and financial security for the future. Building that cleaner and more secure future will mean building on the successes of RGGI, making it more effective in reducing emissions and creating even more investment in energy efficiency so it slashes even more customer bills and creates even more jobs.

Power Hour discussion and feedback
Wednesday, February 23
7 p.m.
Two Echo Common House (at the end of Echo Rd.)
Brunswick, ME (directions)

Have an idea that you think will reduce energy use, costs, and greenhouse gas emissions in Cumberland County? Share it at tonight’s Power Hour discussion and feedback session, facilitated by CLF Maine Staff Attorney Jane West in coalition with the Brunswick Permaculture Group and Transition Greater Brunswick.

The ideas gathered from this and future Power Hours will form the foundation of a Cumberland County energy and climate plan, which will inform the ways in which municipalities, their communities and the private sector conserve, generate, use and diversify energy in the County. It will focus on priority measures to reduce energy, greenhouse gas emissions and costs 17 percent by 2017.

The event is open to the public. Cost is $2/person. More details >

This has been a busy week for CLF, as we continue to respond to the ongoing efforts of the LePage Administration to weaken Maine’s environmental protections. On Monday, February 14, immediately prior to the scheduled public hearing on the LePage proposals, the LePage Administration submitted an actual bill, LD1, that encompassed some but not all of the proposed “reforms.” The public hearing immediately following this announcement, held by the Legislature’s Regulatory Reform Committee, was attended by hundreds of opponents, including many members of CLF. At the hearing, CLF Maine Director Sean Mahoney submitted testimony to the Committee criticizing any attempts to drive a wedge between strong environmental protections and a vibrant economy. It is imperative that this Administration understands that much of Maine’s economy is built on its unique environment and quality of place.

At a separate press event at the State House on the same day, CLF Maine Board Member Hoddy Hildreth lent additional words to the CLF cause, stating his opposition to the rollbacks and calling the attempt to revive the false choice between pickerels and payrolls “hogwash.”

What now? CLF has filed additional requests to the Governor’s office and the Department of Environmental Protection under the Freedom of Access Act in connection with the new bill, LD1. Many of the original proposed “reforms” will now be the subject of separate bills that will be presented later in the session, and CLF will be providing updates as we get information.  An initial public hearing on LD1 is now scheduled for February 24 at the Cross Building at 10 a.m. We invite you to join CLF and our allies at this hearing, and show the Administration that the environment is important to the people of Maine.

Jordan Basin (circled in red) is about 60 miles south of Bar Harbor in the Gulf of Maine

A Boston Globe article last week reported exciting information about North Atlantic right whales, the most endangered large whale in the North Atlantic and one of the planet’s rarest animals, with an estimated 440 individuals left in the total population. Historically, right whales were targeted by whalers because of various characteristics that made them commercially attractive and easy to kill, and today they face continuing threats from entanglement in fishing nets and collisions with ships. While there are many mysteries surrounding this ocean giant, in recent years, scientists discovered that many right whales spend early winter (November to January) in Jordan Basin, which is approximately 60 miles south of Bar Harbor in the Gulf of Maine and is one of New England’s special ocean places.

A breaching North Atlantic right whale

Scientists were able to conduct further observations of right whale behavior in Jordan Basin this past winter, and they saw indications that the whales were conducting mating rituals. Additional evidence, such as visually observing mating behavior and measuring hormone levels, is necessary in order to draw any definitive conclusions about the whales mating, but scientists sound optimistic that these recent discoveries are helping to fill in the blanks of what we don’t know about right whale behavior.

These discoveries carry additional importance because they can be used to create measures to protect the threatened right whale. Since whales are often harmed in net entanglements or ship strikes, knowledge of where they congregate allows the creation of well-tailored regulations that define shipping routes outside of right whale hotspots and reduce vessel speeds in seasonal right whale waters (this was discussed in a Boston Globe editorial that ran earlier this week). This is a key example of how marine spatial planning can help protect threatened ocean species, such as the North Atlantic right whale, and preserve our ocean legacy.