Know the Score >> Beyond the Roll Calls
This legislative session, dozens of bills were introduced that would have weakened decades’ worth of protections for natural areas, clean air and water, wildlife and children’s health. Fortunately, legislators on both sides of the aisle defended our environmental safeguards and demonstrated political courage, showing that conservation is not a partisan issue.
Legislative scores tell only part of the story. We report here the individual actions, not reflected in the scores, that legislators took impacting our environment.
Many of the attacks on our environmental protections were minimized thanks to the incredible bipartisan work of the entire Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee. Led by Committee Chairs Sen. Tom Saviello and Rep. Jim Hamper, the ENR Committee crafted scientifically-supported proposals that safeguard Maine’s environmental laws.
Sen. Saviello and ENR Committee ranking minority member, Rep. Bob Duchesne, played key roles in crafting compromises that protected vernal pools, significant wildlife habitat, shoreland and water quality.
Rep. Hamper and ENR Committee member, Sen. Seth Goodall, worked diligently to find common ground and a bipartisan compromise on the Kid Safe Products Act that keeps our families safe. In addition, Sen. Saviello worked with the ENR Committee and with the administration to ensure the ban on the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) was enacted.
ENR Committee member, Rep. Melissa Walsh Innes, sponsored and helped pass a new bill that reduces pollution, cuts costs and creates jobs by expanding opportunities for the responsible recycling of electronic waste from computers, TVs and printers.
The ENR Committee also defeated several attempts to weaken Maine’s successful bottle recycling and redemption law.
The Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (ACF) Committee, unfortunately, did not demonstrate the same harmony and bipartisan leadership as the ENR Committee. Chaired by Sen. Roger Sherman and Rep. Peter Edgecomb, the ACF Committee blocked constructive questions and discourse in public hearings, advanced the repeal of the pesticide notification registry and recommended a study group that seems designed to abolish the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC).
Despite this backdrop, ACF Committee ranking minority member, Rep. Jeff McCabe, and Rep. Andy O’Brien, worked hard to keep the pesticide notification registry and lobbied on the House floor to defeat its repeal. Sen. Elizabeth Schneider and Rep. Jim Dill offered a compromise amendment to keep the registry. Sen. Schneider fought for an open and democratic process when the chair tried to limit committee questions during the bill’s public hearing. On the first House floor vote, seven brave Republicans voted against repealing our right-to-know about pesticide spraying: Reps. Pat Flood, Les Fossel, Ryan Harmon, Jon McKane, Kim Olsen, Deb Sanderson and Frederick Wintle.
ACF Committee members, Reps. McCabe, O’Brien, Dill, Peter Kent and Sen. Schneider, defended attacks against the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC), the state agency charged with protecting Maine’s North Woods. Rep. McCabe introduced a bill that would reform LURC while keeping its structure intact. Several other legislators, including Reps. Duchesne, Brad Moulton, Russell Black, Jarrod Crockett and John Martin, helped avert the outright elimination of LURC this session.
The Joint Select Committee on Regulatory Fairness and Reform, chaired by Sen. Jon Courtney and Rep. John McKane, dealt with one bill – LD 1. Originally, LD 1 put our health, our environment and our economy at unnecessary risk by weakening or repealing several landmark environmental protections. In the end, the committee worked in a bipartisan way to find common-sense solutions that improved how Maine’s regulatory system works without sacrificing our environmental laws.
In particular, committee members Sens. Saviello and Goodall and Reps. Duchesne, Michael Carey and Jim Parker did an extensive amount of work gathering information and testimony in addressing changes to the Board of Environmental Protection. Additionally, committee members Reps. Sharon Treat and Linda Valentino, added important information on a variety of issues that helped ensure the integrity of our environmental laws were maintained.
House Chair of the Energy, Utilities and Technology (EUT) Committee, Rep. Stacey Fitts and Sen. Phil Bartlett, played key roles in ensuring Maine’s continued participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) – a partnership among ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce carbon dioxide pollution. Rep. Fitts also demonstrated courage and leadership by opposing Governor LePage’s bill to shift Maine’s energy policy away from renewable energy sources. He also sponsored and helped pass a law that requires the State to develop a plan to cut Maine’s consumption of oil by 30% by 2030 and by 50% by 2050.
Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Rector, Chair of the Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development, led his committee to issue a unanimous report that would have maintained Maine’s Uniform Building and Energy Code (MUBEC), which provides minimum quality, safety and energy-efficiency standards for homes and businesses. Unfortunately, the State and Local Government Committee reported a competing negative bill that weakens the code by exempting all towns with a population of less than 4,000 (400 of Maine’s 526 towns) from the code. Sen. Rector and Rep. Rob Hunt led the effort on the Senate and House floors to preserve Maine’s energy efficiency building code for all of Maine, but unfortunately, the law was weakened. Four courageous House Republicans, Reps. Jane Knapp, Kim Olsen, Dana Dow and Meredith Strang-Burgess voted against weakening MUBEC.
Sen. Bill Diamond, Reps. Ann Peoples and Ed Mazurek, were leaders in defeating attempts to repeal the ban on billboard advertising on Maine’s public ways.
Reps. Charlie Priest and Maeghan Maloney were environmental champions in the Judiciary committee, arguing eloquently against the shortening of the Statute of Limitations law and harmful Takings legislation.
Rep. Moulton was a friend of sensible transportation by championing a bill expanding ZOOM bus service in southern Maine.
Rep. Dennis Keschl defended Maine’s clean water by helping to defeat a bill that would have undermined shoreland protections.
Only three House members voted against the ban on the toxic chemical BPA: Reps. Larry Dunphy, Beth O’Connor, and Heather Sirocki. In addition, Reps. Paulette Beaudoin, Kerri Prescott and Amy Volk were absent for the vote on this important children’s health bill.
Democracy was served a setback by a bill sponsored by House Speaker Bob Nutting to repeal same-day voter registration – a long-standing practice that has helped over 70,000 Maine voters participate in the last two general elections.
Just days before the end of the session, Senate President Kevin Raye introduced and passed a last-minute, counterproductive resolve opposing the creation of a national park in Maine.
Although Maine’s wildlife recreation and fishing industry contributes $1.5 billion to the state’s economy annually, the Legislature failed to support a constitutional amendment to dedicate a portion of the sales tax to support the Departments of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Marine Resources. After five senators switched their votes, the bill failed in the State Senate by two votes.
