In reacting to the crippling price of diesel fuel, Gov. John Baldacci has drafted an economic development blueprint that should become a model for Maine policymaking. Late last Friday, the governor declared a “civil emergency” and announced a multi-pronged plan for alleviating the cost of diesel:

• expediting fuel tax refunds, while easing the “administrative burden” of receiving these reimbursements;

• reviewing oft-criticized weight restrictions north of Augusta, to increase the number of state-managed routes available to truck traffic, and petitioning the president to open I-95 and I-395 to 100,000-pound trucks;

• promising to introduce emergency legislation to quicken tax reimbursements on capital equipment purchases within the forest products industry and rescind sales taxes on related industrial parts/supplies;

• postponing new motor carrier regulations with potential negative impacts on the industry;

• amplifying industry’s voice in long-term solutions, in this case energy independence and sustainability.

Against the $4-per-gallon fears gripping the trucking industry, these proposals from Gov. Baldacci cannot be described as anything but stopgap. In announcing the initiative, the governor said stratospheric diesel prices are a national problem needing a national solution, a broad scope that could still be too narrow.

The state’s short-term response is the best truckers could have hoped for (suspending the fuel tax on diesel would have been an uncomfortable precedent) to keep their rigs on the road.

Others in Maine business and industry should hope for more proposals like it. Gov. Baldacci is relaxing and shelving burdensome regulations, rescinding sales taxes, and expediting tax rebates to aid a critical economic sector.

In short, it’s a small-government approach to a problem that’s market-based. The governor’s plan is positioning the industry to remain competitive – one of our favorite economic principles – against cost factors beyond control of either business or government.

This is economic development at its simplest. Instead of generating or sustaining growth through incentives, government should also bust the barriers that prohibit it, while streamlining and improving its regulatory approach.

Imagine if these same principles were applied toward other industries, such as the diesel-dependent construction or commercial fishing sectors. Or even health insurance, where oppressive regulation is the usual suspect.

With government, we know, crisis is the matriarch of inventiveness. With diesel, Gov. Baldacci has put forward an innovation – aiding industry by getting state government out of its way.

If it’s the right approach to a crisis, it could be right for Maine in general.