An Act to Expand Affordable Heating Investments with Maine's Public Resources (2014)
Governor's Bill The legislature defeated the Governor’s bill to increase logging on public lands and take the money from the sale of the timber to fund a heating efficiency program. The proposal would have increased logging on 400,000 acres of public forest with no public input about what increased logging would mean for the health of the forest. The bill would have set a new precedent; money earned from timber harvesting has historically been used to fund the Bureau of Parks and Lands, not diverted for other purposes. The Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee voted to oppose the Governor’s bill and the full legislature followed its lead.
