The investigative report released in the April 19 newspaper, “Payday at the Mill,” shines a spotlight on what can happen when our elected officials invite out-of-state swindlers to write Maine legislation.

It seems this sweet deal for the financiers was a consequence of our governor and legislators being duped by slick talkers from away. They were conned into passing a dangerously complex bill that they didn’t really understand, because it was written by out-of-state financial corporations. Maine taxpayers bought a pig in a poke and paid $32 million for basically nothing but smoke and mirrors.

To me, this is eerily similar to my worst fears about the rattlesnake in a poke that our legislators are now courting as they rush to pass the deeply flawed metallic mineral mining rules, drafted with heavy-handed mining industry involvement from start to finish. Public comment in opposition has been thunderous during the last three legislative sessions.

Even though the Legislature rejected state Department of Environmental Protection rules last session as flawed and seriously underprotective, the DEP submitted the same rules this session to try again to shove them down our throats.

And talk about a scientifically complicated but vitally important rule. The leadership of the Joint Standing Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources is actually tinkering with provisions in this venomous rule themselves, thinking they know all the science they need to know to protect Maine’s ground and surface water and scenic resources.

Maine residents would do well to come wide awake to this glaring example of over-blown and dangerous political muscle-flexing. Let’s not look the other way as our legislators are wooed into landing Maine in another dangerous trap set by out-of-state corporate interests.

Susan Davies

Liberty

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