LePages Turns the Tables on the Enviros (China, Ashland: renting, houses)

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Revi

As an enviro-capitalist I disagree with you, respectfully. I have worked as a Maine Guide and found that people were up here spending money because the place isn't as polluted as the places they came from.

Also there are not a lot of bear and moose in Paramus, New Jersey and Redding, PA. I think you'll find the game is the real reason they come. No one is saying we have to turn the state of Maine into another Detroit Michigan we just need to make it reasonable for people to do business here. If they want to build a building we don't have to worry about them displacing a mosquito breeding puddle.
There is PLENTY of unspoiled semi-wilderness up north! You can drive from Greenville north for 8 Hours and see nothing but woods.....How much woods do you need??? There is no lack of woodlands in Maine. There is a lack of industry and jobs.

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Oh oh. Maine Audubon likes Matt Dunlap. Anybody who is liked by Audubon makes me nervous.

Helmsman, Hard to port!.

"We reject the idea of private property."
Peter Berle, President of the National Audobon Society

You see, all we have to do is read what these people want for us. It's in their written plan. They tell us what they want. Audubon isn't about bird feeders and bird photography. It's about crushing any economic opportunity. The penthouse environmentalists that read the Boston Globe are convinced that Maine's forests are gone. Of course they have never been to Maine, but these earth worshippers just know our forests are gone because the environmental industry told them so.

Oh my God, you just made my freakin' day. Thats just about what I thought when he showed up on The Maine Outdoors, Sunday night!

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Maineah

I'd be much more worried about the price of gasoline keeping tourists away than any of LePage's still to be impelmented policies or just his words. In 2008 the combination of cold ,wet weather and high fuel costs cost the state millions in tourist dollars. If gas goes to $4.00 a gallon as predicted this year we can expect the same. Fuel is not going to be cheap anymore. With that in mind perhaps the tourist industry in not the best basket to be putting one's eggs in. Maine needs viable industry.

We were recently in Hawaii, their primary industry is likewise tourism.

I was surprised to learn that the Dole Pineapple packing plant is open for tours, but that no pineapples are grown there. The pineapple industry was shut-down in favor of tourism.

Near Waikiki there are a number of piers, with glass bottom boats, sailing excursions, and two submarines for tourists to view the fishes. I asked a boat captain about ferry service between the islands and I got a big earful, it seems that ferrying passengers between islands was made illegal; to support the airlines.

Their economy is strictly tourism.

While we were there I mused a few times about what is going to happen when plentiful oil runs out.

I think that Maine sits in a much better position for the coming petroleum shortages.

Obviously tourism will die.

[goto10]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Telling me I'm too emotional for rational discussion is another liberal tactic. No I'm not going to agree with you so I guess that makes me irrational in your eyes. So be it..I find you irrational as well.
Yes envrionmentalists are anti-capatalists and I'd go as far as agreeing with dmyankee they are the new manifestation of the Communist Party. This is just a taste of what's to come. The people will send the envrio-nuts packing in short order, red tape will be cut and the GD frogs and mosquitoes can mate somewhere besides the filled in vernal pools. Pave paradise and put up a parking lot!

maineah, fyi China is an actual communist country and they are blowing us away right now.

That being said this development legislation is crap. I would like there to be some trees up there when I finally retire, which ain't soon. The enviro-nuts are thinking about everyone's future, not just your present. There are more people in the world now, resources are decreasing, learn to share, your grandkids will thank you.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by GregW

I live in the very conservative State immediately west of Maine. Our governor may be a Democrat but he is no liberal or tree hugger. We have a lot of State owned land but with less regulation. The result has been very little development of the forest product or any other industry. Our population North of the Notch has been steadily decreasing as the paper mills have closed and other industries have moved across the western ocean. The only thing left is the entertainment industry in the form of winter sports and summer hiking. Both of these require a suitable environment that does not include clear cut or mined out wastelands.

I do not believe the regulations on the Maine Forest have had any effect what so ever on job growth in the Maine North woods. The simple fact is nobody wants the wood or the wood products enough to make more jobs available. That type of economy is not going to come back. What people apparently do want is the forest woodland or wilderness experience. This, as in New Hampshire, requires intact forest. The most important thing about the forest is the existence of the forest.

My estimate of the situation is your governor is simply letting the Heritage Foundation or the Cato institute write his proposals in line with the tenants of crony capitalism and unrestrained greed. These proposals place economic correctness over long term success and local prosperity. I think the likeliest result of these proposals will be the devastation of local small town businesses as Wally World and Home Despot replace local businesses with artificially low process. Once the competition is eliminated the prices will rise to above the previous levels as these predacious corporations maximize their, and not the community, profits. Another likely event, if the forests become available for sale, is their purchase by the Saudis and/or the Chinese. Then the people of Maine will have to pay for using what had previously been free as well as tolerate the clear cutting or mining of any resources available. These proposals are designed to let foreign big money investors steal the North Woods from the citizens of Maine.

Please note I did not mention any of the environmental losses likely to be caused by eliminating the current restrictions. Polluted water is a direct result of over cutting a forest or piling up mine tailings. Salmon do not thrive in polluted water. Salmon fishermen take their money to where the salmon are not where they were. Tourists, with very few exceptions, do not visit to look at a devastated environment. They take their money and go somewhere the environment is still intact. The proposed changes will not be good for either Maine’s economy or environment. It will only be good for the greedy and careless investors from across the oceans.

I suggest the anti environmentalists be careful of what they wish for lest they actually get it.

The trend for the last hundred years has been for more and more Americans to live in cities.

Such that now the majority of Americans live in cities.

And I suspect urban living will need to be encouraged, as it is the most effcient way to conserve energy and distribute resources.

And since at the same time, America is becoming more of a service and knowledge based economy, employers will locate themselves where the people are: in or near cities.

If the lack of jobs and the rising costs of heating and maintaining a free-standing single family home isn't enough to force people to move to cities, the government will eventually make owning a private home and rural living more expensive, by imposing and/or raising taxes on such things as oil, natural gas, and gasoline.

If anyone doubts this--think that even now there's a movement afoot to eliminate the federal income tax mortgage deduction.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by goto10

maineah, fyi China is an actual communist country and they are blowing us away right now.

The sane thing would be for our government to have imposed a tarrif on any country that employs virtual slave labor and pollutes the planet to undercut American goods and services.

How do you fairly compete with a country that does this, for example?



Source: Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China | ChinaHush

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by goto10

maineah, fyi China is an actual communist country and they are blowing us away right now.

That being said this development legislation is crap. I would like there to be some trees up there when I finally retire, which ain't soon. The enviro-nuts are thinking about everyone's future, not just your present. There are more people in the world now, resources are decreasing, learn to share, your grandkids will thank you.

I'll dismiss the comment about how prosperous China is under communism as a joke as you certainly cannot be serious with such a statement.
Have you ever been to the western part of northern Maine??? Seriously??? I spend a week or two there every fall and I can tell you there isn't a thing except for an occasional primitive cabin on a pond here and there for thousands of square miles. We have to haul in everything including fuel for a week. If we run out we have to drive to Canada to get it. There is not a store, a gas station, a factory, a post office, nothing, but lakes rivers ponds and mountains. You can leave Ashland and drive 80 miles straight before hitting Canada. I could take you to places and drop you off and you would most likely perish before another soul came by to find you. That's just a small part of the undeveloped land in Maine. Maine is in no danger of losing it's forests to industry. Industry will not relocate to Maine due to transportation costs, heating expenses, lack of a workforce, and many other economic reasons far beyond the envrionmental clamp in place now. LePage is trying to lift the envrionmental strangle hold on businesses close to developed areas first. He isn't planning to turn Baxter State Park into another Sunday River....though that may not be a bad idea!

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

The sane thing would be for our government to have imposed a tarrif on any country that employs virtual slave labor and pollutes the planet to undercut American goods and services.

How do you fairly compete with a country that does this, for example?





Source: Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China | ChinaHush

Great photos. No doubt this is exactly what Governor Lepage is planning for Maine's future.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Great photos. No doubt this is exactly what Governor Lepage is planning for Maine's future.

Well, how else can you expect to compete with China?

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

Well, how else can you expect to compete with China?

Very true. The top photo will be Camden harbor the middle photo Presque Isle, and the bottom one will be Biddeford after four years of LePage!!