AUGUSTA – Speaking the day before Earth Day, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell warned that while the nation’s air and water are cleaner, much work lies ahead and the current president is not supporting environmental efforts.

“There are more severe challenges than existed 25 years ago,” Mitchell said Wednesday during the annual Maine Water Conference.

The work of national environmental pioneer Ed Muskie, a native son of Rumford, needs to continue, but unlike the president’s father that work isn’t supported by George W. Bush, Mitchell said.

In 1990 as a U.S. Senator from Maine, Mitchell was working on the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and acid rain. The Reagan administration had fiercely opposed the Clean Air Act and attempted to repeal the Clean Water Act, Mitchell told a crowded room.

But after George H.W. Bush was elected, he reversed that policy and announced his support for the Clean Air Act. Eventually a strong bill was passed that has been good for the country, Mitchell said. “None of it would have happened then without President Bush’s early support.”

That makes the current President Bush’s lack of environmental support “especially ironic and tragic,” Mitchell said.

Since the Clean Air Act passed, there have been huge reductions in automobile emissions, he said. But emissions are increasing as more oil is consumed and as the number of cars and trucks on the road, and miles driven, rise. The country needs meaningful conservation programs and development of more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, Mitchell said. That would lead to a cleaner environment and reduce the need on foreign oil, “which has such a profound effect on our foreign policy today.”

Those efforts are not only lacking from the White House, the administration has proposed changes that undermine environmental law. On too many occasions the administration “has enforced the law only under federal court orders in lawsuits brought by states and private organizations,” Mitchell said. “It’s a sad day for this country when the Environmental Protection Agency must be forced by the federal courts to do what the law says.”

As the world’s dominant economy, the United States has a responsibility to lead in world-wide policy that’s good for the planet, Mitchell said. Finite resources – including water – need to be protected. While there are replacements for energy, food and building materials, “there is no replacement for water. The United Nations has warned that water will be the oil of this century, leading to regional conflict and perhaps widespread war, if we don’t husband this resource,” Mitchell said.

Earlier Wednesday Lewiston city official Lincoln Jeffers spoke of the redevelopment along the Androscoggin River, how an attractive river is the “golden goose” to luring development.

Jeffers ticked off projects underway: redevelopment of Bates Mill, Railroad Park, the Riverwalk trail and Auburn’s Festival Plaza. Those projects would not happen if the river was as polluted as it used to be.

A century ago Lewiston was the hub for jobs, but that manufacturing was done without regard to the environment. Today’s citizens are cleaning up the mess, and that is paying off, Jeffers said. Since 2000 an unprecedented $148 million in downtown projects have been built or approved.

In addition to new buildings popping up, another big change is attitude, he said. In 1970 when the river was used as a sewer, and scum floated on the surface, it was seen as a liability. While much work to clean the river remains, today it’s seen as an asset. “You see people walking along the river. People are starting to rediscover it,” Jeffers said.
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