Maine voter revolt threatens state's Big Green Iron Triangles

Maine's state government has been called the closest thing to an environmental dictatorship in America, but that may change. Paul R. LePage, Maine's incoming Tea Party-backed Republican governor, campaigned on lifting environmental regulations that "serve no purpose except to cost businesses money," reducing or eliminating just about every business-related tax in the state, and bringing cheap energy from Canada. He gut-punched Big Green environmental activists for pouring millions into Maine to tie up land and kill development: "You can't harvest timber. No one is going to have the benefit of creating wealth and prosperity from it. I say, look at land for Maine's future." LePage will have his hands full. Maine also has new Republican majorities in its state House and Senate, with freshmen who don't even know that Iron Triangles exist. Big Green got its Maine foothold in August 1988 when the Natural Resources Protection Act was passed, creating the state's Department of Environmental Protection and enlarging the existing Land Use Regulation Commission. Like most Big Green-inspired laws, the NRPA started with a little mission that got big. This is called "Mission Creep" in the military. ..more