This is a story about promises that never create change, change that never happens, and what happens when a promise never changes.

This columnist has come to realize that quoting from any portion of legislation has the potential to devastate one’s word count with extreme prejudice. In addition, this writer has developed a strong empathy for those who approach the workings of Augusta with a look of wild-eyed terror. A simple shy glance at the legal papyri that liberals pass with indifferent regularity is enough to scare the proverbial “legislation” out of anybody.

Rural Maine faces a perfect storm, if you will, of liberal forces converging upon it with one singular purpose in mind; a cleansing of all traces of human industry in the Northeast regions. They wish to create a “wildland”. No roads. No homes. No people.

Why Maine? Simply put, Maine offers the easiest legislative road to success. It’s called a joint committee. It’s not for medicinal purposes either. This committee system was designed to “streamline” the legislative process. Anyone who has studied government at any length will come to a quick realization that “streamlined legislation” is about as appealing as a large pregnant bovine with a bad case of diarrhea.

Our founding fathers knew the worst thing for a society was an “efficient” government. They did not want government to be a well oiled machine. So they installed checks and balances. Things like separate committees for separate Houses. This would insure that the minority would still have a way to stall bad legislation. But our liberal friends in Augusta also knew this would inhibit legislation. They wanted an “efficient” government to speed the process of legislation.

So Augusta instituted the joint committee system. One committee for both Houses and all legislation. Since then, Enviro-leftist have passed a slew of leftwing zealot environmentalist “streamlined legislation”. A visit to the DEP website will reveal a never ending list of such “streamlined legislation” most of which has been repealed because they stink so bad.

In last weeks column we examined the fact that the ambiguous MNRPA has been a breeding ground for a never ending compounding legislation. Take for instance, Maine’s Significant Vernal Pool legislation. Now this is “streamlined legislation” if ever one has been smelt. Vernal pools are defined as “ephemeral pools that fill with spring rain water and generally dry by summer’s end”. At least that’s one definition. To this simple hick from the sticks, that sounds like nice fancy way to say mud puddle.

Heaven forbid a expectant frog, who couldn’t make the birthing pond down the way, stops at a mud puddle in your dooryard and in her last throes of labor deposit’s a gelatos mound of “endangered” tadpoles in your mud puddle. You, friend, have just had your mud puddle elevated to “significant”, your dooryard is now a “fragile habitat”, and….DEP wants your land….to protect those defenseless tadpoles. See how it works. No, we didn’t see. That is the problem.

All over this State, under the guise of environmental protection, the government is taking private land in the name of a bug, frog, or salamander. The biggest travesty is that we are letting them.

Professor Jon Reisman has studied this issue relentlessly and has much to say about it. In a speech in Albany, N.Y., Reisman addressed the Property Rights Foundation of America. He chillingly predicts that within 20 years rural eastern Maine to be a “wildland” with no people, roads, or economic activity. While his prediction is startling to be sure, it is not without merit. We see even Republican Snowe and Collins supporting these liberal initiatives to create a Northeast Wildland.

Liberals claim this Vernal Pool legislation will create jobs. It seems to this writer that standing around a mud puddle performing a rain dance in a desperate plea for a job extension is somewhat tenuous at best. It’s sure not what a Mainer would call job security.

The Vernal pool campers want more and stricter legislation on vernal pools citing the need to address the different sizes of vernal pools. Like we didn’t know that mud puddles come in different sizes. These “studies” are done through government grants, of course…..taxpayer funded government grants….of course. Seems that by studying vernal pools they are able to learn about the struggles of urbanization …..yeah boy?!……What the……?!…..What in the…..?! People….can anybody say corruption!!!

Well, I’ve had it!! If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I’ve decided to apply for a government grant….to study moose drool. Why? Do I need a reason? Well, it’s to better understand the mind of a terrorist….oh, oops,…sorry, can’t say that word.

“The Legislature finds and declares that the State’s rivers and streams, great ponds, fragile mountain areas, freshwater wetlands, significant wildlife habitat, coastal wetlands and coastal sand dune systems are resources of State significance. These resources have great scenic beauty and unique characteristics, unsurpassed recreational, cultural, historical and environmental value of present and future benefit to the citizens of the State and that uses are causing the rapid degradation and, in some cases, the destruction of these critical resources, producing significant adverse economic and environmental impacts and threatening the health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of the State.”

What you have just read is a confluence of ambiguity, also known as, a great gathering of nothing (or liberal legislation), but, a strategic nothing to be sure. From the Maine Natural Resources Protection Act (MNRPA), which was passed in the early 1990’s, has emerged a myriad of legislative acts which have served to lace the State with innumerable layers of constrictive regulatory bands effectively decimating our economy.

Because the MNRPA was written with such fluid ambiguous language, it’s lack of definitive parameters is now the fertile seedbed to every legislative manipulation to further “protect” any minutia of a microscopic organism discovered in a environmentalist daydream. Can anyone say job security?

Certainly not for the working men and women of Maine, but it definitely has been a boon for the environmentalist movement which largely functions off taxpayer funded government grants. How ingenious of liberal Democrats to craft legislation which is a veritable sugar tree of taxpayer handouts. For elitist entitlement seekers, simply creating a plausible endangerment for some micro-ecosystem will insure a tax funded research project with the inevitable tax hike as a consequence.

It’s more than ironic that the very people who are paying for this “research” bear the fiscal brunt of the findings. It’s no wonder that the size of Government is growing faster than the private sector; in fact, it’s safe to say that, in Maine, the private sector is shrinking. Overtaxed and under appreciated, Maine’s workers, our financial strength, has been bolting for greener pastures for some time now. As the environmental screws tighten, the speed of the exodus increases.

One would think that the leftist, out of self preservation, would see the handwriting on the wall and opt for a more common sense approach to the governance of our natural resources. That grasp of reality seems to be just beyond Augusta’s fingertips. So with our natural resources locked away out of our reach and many of our fellow Mainers leaving the State in search of a job, who is going to fund all the environmental mandates? With no funds to function and no citizens left to protect the environment from, will there be a future for the DEP?……. Just wondering…..a little.

But in the here and now, the enviro-leftist laws from Augusta have increasingly wedged a divide between the Northeast and the Southwest regions of Maine. A study by Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Maine, Kathleen Bell, showed that on many of the environmental regulatory issues, the Southwest part of the State voted favorable while the Northeast voted consistently against these measures. Interestingly, many of these regulatory laws have had more of an impact on the northeastern areas of the State.

One determent factor for the disparity in regional voting patterns given by Ms. Bell was the higher education of the South compared to the North. Really!! Well, La De Da!! Perhaps the study should have factored in the intellectually debilitating effect of liberal elitist arrogance or the impact of mind numbing self absorbed infatuation. Maybe the influence of free thinking common sense would be a better way to describe the thought process of hard working rural Mainers.

This points to the crux of the issue. Elitist snobs feel they know better how to run your land than you. Our State Government has exalted itself to landlord of the great State of Maine. But in a Government run by the people, even land that is “owned” by the Government still belongs to the people. The State has begun to make alarming grabs for private property under the guise of environmental protection. We must begin to demand that Augusta repeal back the legislative layers of this stinking rotten environmental onion until we can find a common sense balance between prosperity and the pristine beauty of Maine.

The term “flat earthers” has been used by environmentalists to demean and ridicule any disagreement with their views for some time now. The intent is to portray those who call for moderation or, more specifically, a compromise between the need for a robust economy and environmental safeguards, as blithering idiots out of touch with the modern intellect. As with anything else, a closer examination usually finds those who find smug satisfaction in name calling and smear tactics don’t often stay long enough in front of mirrored objects to participate in any meaningful self-examination.

A comparative research of prosperous state economies versus depressed state economies can yield many and various reasons for the differences, but even a layman can see that the one constant determinant factor is the effective or ineffective use of natural indigenous resources. It has become an imperative that our state leaders become genuinely engaged in this discourse.

The emphasis should be on genuine. Too often, Augusta seems to lack the intestinal fortitude to stand up to environmental extremism and take the necessary steps to bring a ray of warming hope to Maine’s perpetual fiscal winter. Simply put, Maine needs to utilize its bounty of natural resources.

As usual our state leaders are sluggish, that may be kind, to recognize the economic disaster their negligence has created. While the citizens of Maine clamor for a release from the chains of environmentalism, we are, instead, handed token promises to “address” the issue. Then, for our winter entertainment, political lapdogs, formerly know as legislators, capitulate once again to special interest.

In light of the “climategate” e-mails, you would think lawmakers would be rushing to ease business restrictions and lift the crushing weight of “eco-friendly” taxes; after all, weren’t they just as frustrated as we were that the impending global disaster demanded we all make personal sacrifices. One would expect that lawmakers would be relieved, perhaps, even overjoyed that the weather data was skewed, and jump at the chance to withdraw many of the roadblocks to personal prosperity. We can only pray that, in the rush to repeal these burdensome eco-taxes, no helpless bystanders are crushed in the frantic melee to reach the voting switch.

One of the reasons given for the strangulating tax burden placed on business is restrictions would force businesses to operate with less impact on the eco-system. In a testament to American ingenuity, many businesses have learned to adapt. So why are we being told we can’t drill for natural gas in the Gulf of Maine? The technology exists for minimal impact on the ocean floor, while providing an immediate economic boom to our state; instead, we have a windmill project going up off an island on the Maine coast.

Experts tell us that technology does not exist, nor will soon exist, that creates a power grid that can contain and utilize effectively the intermittent power current from a windmill. Technology does exist to support low impact drill rigs far out in the Gulf of Maine away from the coastline, and, creates many jobs; but, environmentalists prefer the windmill. It should, at least, be a great attraction for Windjammer cruises.

With all the technology today debunking the anti-business myths and the global warming theory unraveling, environmentalists still cling religiously to an agenda that kills prosperity for their fellow citizens. Even in the face of new technological advances that pave the way to a new horizon of prosperity that can conjoin with a healthy environment, envirozealots will not allow government to move towards the future. So then, tell me, who are the real “flat earthers”?