LePage Environmental Wrecking Ball Set To Start Swinging

Governor CUT THE RED TAPE NO MATTER THE COST LePage--a developer's best friend--is set to put in action his grand strategy to destroy Maine's environmental protection laws in the name of "business."

First on his list, the vernal pools that provide habitat for a large number of amphibians, which in turn provide food for both mammals and birds, including blue heron.

The rollback of protection for vernal pools was a topic at a Red Tape Audit seminar hosted by--you guessed it--the Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce, and attended by business leaders and developers.

LePage did not mince words about whom he wants to bring down with his "cut the red tape" crusade.

Afterward, LePage identified several state agencies that had been the focal point of frustration, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Labor.

LePage has vowed to change not only the regulatory environment, but what he says is an "adversarial" attitude some agencies have toward businesses.

Ok, so let's see here: destroy environmental protections. Check. Dismantle the social safety net. Check. Abolish protections for working people. Right-O.

When LePage decries "special interests," how does he keep from bursting out laughing? This is a guy who appointed a developer to head the Department of Environmental Protection!

Now, I don't want to come off as some NIMBY anti-development luddite here. I think development is good. But the notion that if "business leader" and "developers" support something then it is, ipso facto, a good thing is pure nonsense. Maine is one of America's great natural treasures: will it still be after four years of LePage's wrecking ball?