Mean Greens

Here in Northern New England, its becoming increasingly clear that powerful enviro groups supported by out-of-state foundations care nothing for people or for their way of life. Look at whats happening in Vermont over a dangerous stretch of road.
According to an Associated Press story in the Concord Monitor yesterday, the rich, foundation-supported, Conservation Law Foundation is trying to throw a monkeywrench in local plans to fix a treacherous section of Route 9 in Wilmington, Vermont.

“For more than 20 years, residents have pushed for the project that would replace two narrow bridges and straighten a 3.6-mile stretch of road that has seen scores of accidents. In the last three years, they have begged state officials to follow through on their promise to fix the road.”

The Conservation Law Foundation knows how to manipulate the states complicated growth management act and has asked for “party status to the agencys Act 250 permit” process. They are objecting to the highways design, wetlands plans and river rechanneling. CLF intervened at the last minute, having found out about the construction project only two months before.

Mark Sinclair, an attorney for Conservation Law Foundation and head of the Vermont CLF office in Montpelier, seemed surprised to find that the project has strong local support. He has suggested an independent mediation planner as a way to avoid CLF opposition. If not that, then he seeks to hold up the $10 million project by two or three years and said “..if AOT (Agency of Transportation) wants to play it this way, it will be dragged out for a long time.”

Meanwhile, how many lives will be shattered or lost by his my-way-or-no-highway attitude?

Wilmington Fire Chief Brian Johnson said to Sinclair, “Id like to have CLF business cards to hand out to accident victims. I see the blood. I see the damage. I think they should be able to talk to you.”

The Conservation Law Foundation has moved into northern New England, with offices in Montpelier, Vermont, Concord, New Hampshire and Rockland, Maine. The latest major bit of news on their website is their new “lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service over NMFSs failure to protect the Northern Right Whale from extinction.”

CLFs website also reveals their interest in litigating “sprawl” issues.

This radical environmental law firm with an agenda has the capacity to shut things down and drag things out. Get those CLF business cards ready to hand out to whomever is left in the Northeast fishing industry and to future victims of the new transportation and “Smart Growth” legislation. The Wilmington Fire Chief is right. CLFs victims ought to be able to talk to them face to face.


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