Success in preventing the worst effects of climate change depends on our faith in public institutions established to secure the common good.
This is my insight after a long career as a fisheries biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, as a member of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection, as the head of institutions like Maine Audubon and The Maine Department of Conservation.
I participated in the development of Maine’s strong environmental movement. Because of these decades-long efforts, we’ve seen unprecedented gains in land conservation, protection of wildlife, cleaner air and water.
These gains were the result not simply of raising public awareness. They were the result of state and federal laws creating public institutions to enforce environmental protections. They were the result of laws that empowered the courts to hold both industry and regulators accountable.
It is alarmingly common nowadays for people to express contempt for our institutions when they don’t get their way. No movement is immune to this but it is especially reckless when it comes from those who claim to care about the environment. Our movement would have nothing to show for itself without public faith in the structures that give our laws teeth.
Case in point: Multiple state and federal agencies have approved the New England Clean Energy Corridor. These approvals have weathered multiple appeals. Meanwhile, the expert public institutions we rely on are lambasted for faithfully upholding our laws. It’s time to finish building this project and deliver 1200 MW of clean hydropower to all New England.
Richard Anderson
Portland
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
