Maine Chapter

44 Oak St, Suite 301, Portland, ME 04101 Phone: (207) 761-5616 Fax: (207) 773-6690 www.maine.sierraclub.org The Sierra Club endorses candidates who support and advocate policies and laws that promote the transition to a cleaner energy economy and that protect Maines clean water and air, forests, and wilderness. Our members help to elect pro-environment candidates, and we use Sierra Club resources to assist endorsed candidates. This questionnaire is designed to assess your positions on priority environmental issues facing Maine voters. Thank you for taking the time to respond. Please email the completed questionnaire (PDF file preferably) to Maine. --@sierraclub.org with Message Line of Candidate Questionnaire. Our deadline is close of business on October 16, 2013. Thank you. Name: Eliot Cutler Campaign Address: PO Box 17766 City: Portland ZIP: 04112 Phone / Fax: --/-Email: eliot@cutlerformaine.com Party: Independent Key Campaign Staff Contact Information (name, email, phone): Kaitlin LaCasse, Deputy Campaign Manager, klacasse@cutlerformaine.com,

Answers to Sierra Club Questionnaire, October 2013 1) Climate change from burning fossil fuels is already having serious impacts on Maine communities, environment, and economy. What is your plan to reduce carbon pollution in Maine and move the state towards a cleaner energy economy? What are your climate change goals by the end of your first term as Governor? The next governor of Maine needs to acknowledge and begin to deal with the following facts about climate change, and the governor needs to lead Maine people in directions that will begin to limit and mitigate its impacts: Climate change is real. Human activity is chiefly responsible for it. Global warming portends massive effects on our public health and our way of life. It is the greatest environmental challenge of our time. Maines economy including Gulf of Maine fisheries, forest products, farms and fourseason tourism depends on the quality of our water, our coastal resources and communities, our wildlife habitats and our infrastructure. All these resources are threatened by rising sea levels, rising water temperatures and changes in our flora and

Maine Chapter
44 Oak St, Suite 301, Portland, ME 04101 Phone: (207) 761-5616 Fax: (207) 773-6690 www.maine.sierraclub.org fauna. Maine cant solve the carbon emissions problem alone, but we can live up to our state motto, meet our commitments, and set an important example for others in our state and local policies.

Earlier in this decade, Maine was a leader in setting goals to cut carbon dioxide emissions. We committed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2010; 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020; and ultimately by as much as 80 percent. These goals are similar to those set by the Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, in 2005 the Governor of Maine signed the Memorandum of Understanding adopting the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) calling for total emissions in RGGI states not to increase from 2009 to 2014, and then to fall by 2.5% per year through 2018, so that by 2019 emissions must be at least 10% below the 2009 level. In 2013, the member states further agreed to reduce the emissions from power generating facilities by 45% between 2014 and 2017. If I am elected governor, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions both in Maine and in neighboring states whose policies we can help influence and whose achievements we can help make possible will be a priority. My administration not only will work to keep Maine on track to achieve the goals that we already have set for ourselves, but also will consider tougher and more challenging goals if that is what sound science directs.

There are no magic answers. Governor Jay Inslee of Washington is right: there is no silver bullet, just plenty of green buckshot. To reduce carbon emissions in Maine, we need to fire off lots of green buckshot. If I am elected governor, the Cutler Administration will Re-double Maines efforts at conservation and energy efficiency, starting with a comprehensive review of existing incentives including the renewable portfolio standard, the long-term contracting authority, and the Community Wind program and a study of the potential for new incentives, such as a more comprehensive feed-in tariff or an enhanced renewable portfolio standard that could be carefully tailored to encourage renewable development without unsupportable price impacts; Push forward with the development in Maine of distributed generation of electricity from renewable resources such as onshore and offshore wind, tidal and solar generation; Increase the availability and use of natural gas, biomass and biofuels and geothermal energy to back out as much carbon emitting oil burning as possible; Work toward eliminating some of the larger carbon contributors in Maine; and,

Maine Chapter
44 Oak St, Suite 301, Portland, ME 04101 Phone: (207) 761-5616 Fax: (207) 773-6690 www.maine.sierraclub.org Reverse the parochial, insular and ham-handed attitude, evidenced by Governor LePages treatment of Statoil, that discourages companies and industries that can help us meet our goals from doing business in Maine.

In every instance, we will pursue these efforts in concert with a renewed commitment to preserving Maines quality of place. Sprawl increases carbon emissions at the same time that it makes public services more expensive, weakens communities and makes Maine a less attractive destination for visitors. These concerns should strengthen the arguments for making available more efficient forms of transportation such as rail, buses, carpooling and bicycling wherever they are economically feasible. Further, I will call for the enactment of LD 825, the bill vetoed by Gov. LePage, and I will see to it that Maine funds a comprehensive long-term study to prepare Maine residents, communities and businesses for the risks posed by climate change. We will implement a statewide coordinated plan to reduce the risks posed by climate change and to help prepare Maine residents, communities and businesses to face those risks. 2) What is your position on the controversial proposal to pump tar sands crude oil through Maine for export out of Casco Bay in South Portland? I share the views expressed by Senator King and Representatives Pingree and Michaud that any reversal of flow through the Portland Pipeline, particularly if it involves a new form of oil such as diluted bitumen (tar sands), should not be undertaken in the absence of a new Presidential Permit, which would need to be preceded by an environmental impact statement. 3) Do you support increasing Maines renewable energy portfolio of new energy sources? What is your position on land-based and offshore wind power in Maine, and how would you deal with concerns about siting, noise, transmission lines, and impacts on wildlife and wilderness? Yes. Diversifying Maines renewable energy portfolio will be one of my high priorities. (See answer to Question 1.) We need to develop all of Maines clean, renewable energy resources, including land-based and offshore wind power, in ways that are cost-effective and consistent with the protection of Maines vital assets. I share rational concerns about how and where generation and transmission facilities are sited, about their noise, wilderness and view-shed impacts, and about their effects on wildlife and habitat. We need to strike and restrike, over and over, the right balance between meeting our energy needs with renewables and protecting what is unique about Maine. In my opinion and experience, the keys to striking the right balance are a transparent discussion of potential impacts, the development and even-handed implementation of sound, science-based standards and rigorous permitting and enforcement. I know how to ensure that the right balance is struck, because I have done it. I helped write our nations foundational environmental laws. During the course of my long career as an

Maine Chapter
44 Oak St, Suite 301, Portland, ME 04101 Phone: (207) 761-5616 Fax: (207) 773-6690 www.maine.sierraclub.org environmental and land use policy official and lawyer, I successfully blocked bad projects and guided the permitting of good ones airports, highways and other major facilities by preventing and mitigating adverse impacts. If I am elected, my Administration will see to it that we strike the right balance in Maine. 4) Do you think drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Maine should be permitted? If so, how close to the mainland should it be allowed? No candidate has acted or spoken out more forcefully or more often than I have against drilling for oil and gas off the Maine coast. A spill like the one that occurred recently in the Gulf of Mexico could destroy Maines lobster and ground fisheries, cripple clam and mussel harvesting and aquaculture, and devastate our tourism and recreational marine industry. It literally could change overnight the way of life we have known in coastal Maine for generations. As governor, I will not allow it to happen. As I have said over and over again for several years, theyll have to drill right through me to get to the Gulf of Maine. 5) What role, if any, do you see for natural gas (including LNG) in Maines energy mix? Maine uses nearly 400 million gallons of oil for heating each year. In order to reduce this dependence on imported oil and to limit the excessive carbon emissions associated with its combustion, Maine needs to put in place a range of alternatives. One important alternative, particularly in the near term, is natural gas, and I am in favor of expanding Maines natural gas pipelines and delivery systems so that natural gas is an option for more businesses and homeowners. It is not yet clear that LNG will be a required means of transport for Maines natural gas supplies, as pipelines and compressed natural gas delivery systems are developed. Any new LNG terminal projects proposed in Maine will be required to pass environmental muster on their merits.

Maine Chapter
44 Oak St, Suite 301, Portland, ME 04101 Phone: (207) 761-5616 Fax: (207) 773-6690 www.maine.sierraclub.org

6) Maine is the most heating oil dependent state in the nation. Efficiency Maines energy efficiency programs help to reduce consumer and business energy costs and consumption, as well as carbon and air pollution. Do you support increasing the Public Utilities Commissions system benefits charge to fund Efficiency Maine programs? What policies do you propose to make it easier for Maine residents and businesses to invest in energy efficiency? I support efforts to provide incentives for Maine residents and businesses to invest in energy efficiency, including PACE funding for weatherization and other efficiency upgrades and costeffective transportation initiatives (including programs to encourage carpooling and the development of municipal bus systems). The cheapest kilowatt of power is the one that is not used. I support the proper funding of thoroughly vetted energy efficiency programs administered by the Efficiency Maine Trust. I will also support the expansion of PACE programs, through which homeowners and businesses can invest in efficiency upgrades. I support the system benefits charge to fund Efficiency Maine programs, but I am not ready to increase the already high financial burden on Maine energy users. I want to make sure we are thoroughly exploring alternative means to increase energy efficiency in Maine before we consider raising the charge. 7) What specific policies do you advocate for increasing public transportation choices for Mainers? Do you support the proposal to connect Portland to Auburn with passenger train service? Do you support expanding and upgrading freight rail capacity in Maine, and if so, how would you fund this upgrade? Our transportation goal should be moving more people and more goods at lower costs and with fewer environmental impacts. New bus services, dedicated lanes for high-occupancy vehicles and buses, bike routes, and sidewalks along existing roads can typically all be obtained for less than one tenth of the cost of a typical road widening. The last decade has brought exciting success stories for rail transportation in Maine, notably the intermodal facility in Auburn and the return of passenger rail service to Maine. Freight rail can be a cost-effective means of transporting goods and raw materials and is a vital piece of the states infrastructure, helping to sustain and grow Maines industrial base. In general, we need to be more strategic and more flexible in how we plan and fund our transportation investments, developing transportation initiatives that are both environmentally and fiscally responsible. State investments in new or expanded transportation systems whether roads, passenger or freight rail, buses or other modes need to meet a costeffectiveness test and need to be compared with alternatives where the analysis takes into account not only the economic costs and benefits of the alternatives, but also the environmental costs and benefits.

Maine Chapter
44 Oak St, Suite 301, Portland, ME 04101 Phone: (207) 761-5616 Fax: (207) 773-6690 www.maine.sierraclub.org

8) Maines popular and successful Land for Maines Future (LMF) Program needs more funding to protect forests, waterways, farmland, and recreational access. Would you support a LMF bond during your first term as Governor? Maine has a very special quality of place and a unique civic culture. Maintaining these important characteristics is one of the most important investments we can make. That means protecting our natural environment and our wild and scenic places; preserving farmland, forest, harbors and downtowns; and ensuring that people in historic mill towns and villages can both live here and earn a living. The Land for Maines Future Program continues to be an important mechanism for accomplishing those goals. If I am elected, during my first term I will work with the legislature to establish a capital budgeting process that will permit us to make informed and sound decisions about competing investment needs, including investments in infrastructure capital improvements (such as road and bridge repairs and improvements), investments in human capital (such as early childhood education and post-secondary education and training) and investments in environmental and conservation programs (such as wastewater treatment improvements and land acquisition programs). I wont commit today to one or another particular investment, because I dont want to make a promise that later would be imprudent to keep. 9) What is your position on the proposal to create a National Park in the north Maine Woods? Do you support a U.S. Department of Interior reconnaissance study on the feasibility of the current national park proposal? Sustainable natural resources including Maines forests are critical to Maines future growth and prosperity. They represent a key competitive advantage over other states and a strong foundation for creating jobs and reviving the economy. We must invest in them and find ways to add value to them. I believe we can strike a balance between protecting our most critical and special wilderness areas, and encouraging multiple uses of our forest and lands, such as sustainable wood harvesting and recreation. Maines North Woods are a source of wood fiber and the jobs related to them and an important destination for hunters, fisherman, and tourists. Northern Maine has important assets that are real competitive advantages: farms, forests, lakes, rivers, streams, communities, and the people. We need to look at strategies that make use of these advantages in the broadest possible ways, and I believe that there exists considerable potential in identifying and branding areas of Maine like the North Woods in ways that will attract people and jobs to the area. I commend Lucas St. Clair for examining some of the important questions concerning the creation of National Park: (i) what is the best balance of protection and use for current and future generations of Maine people, and (ii) what is the best mechanism to achieve that balance. Earlier in my career, during the late 1970s, I led the federal governments effort to classify the Alaska public lands under the provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and my team reviewed the prospects for conservation and use under a long list of native, state and federal classifications. I learned from that experience that questions that are framed narrowly like should the Quimby-St. Clair lands become a National Park lead to examinations of alternatives that are also too narrowly framed. We should be identifying with the owners, the

Maine Chapter
44 Oak St, Suite 301, Portland, ME 04101 Phone: (207) 761-5616 Fax: (207) 773-6690 www.maine.sierraclub.org affected communities, National Park advocates and other interests in the State the optimum balance of preservation and use and the best mechanism to achieve it. 10) What is your position on the proposed private East West Highway Corridor across Maine? I agree with Senator King that we should reserve our judgment until a thorough examination of the environmental impacts on affected communities as required under the National Environment Policy Act (should the project make it that far) is completed. I helped craft NEPA; Ive litigated many NEPA cases; I respect its purpose and its utility; and Id prefer to make an informed judgment about the project based upon a satisfactory EIS. In the absence of detailed information about the route, the uses, the alternatives to it and the environmental impacts of both the proposed project and the alternatives, like Senator King, I remain skeptical. 11) Under the current administration, Maines Department of Environmental Protection has been embroiled in controversies over conflicts of interest, lack of enforcement, and personnel issues. What is your plan to restore DEPs integrity and effectiveness? One advantage of being an independent candidate is the liberty to select the most qualified individuals for key positions of responsibility regardless of their political affiliations. I know how to rebuild an agency. Along with Administrator Douglas Costle, I led the Carter Administrations effort to restore funding and personnel to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after it had been dramatically weakened during the Nixon and Ford Administrations. I will restore the Maine DEPs integrity and the funding and personnel it needs to discharge its responsibilities. I will find the best possible people to lead DEP and support them fully in their work to protect Maines public health and environment. (I would never, ever, put an oil and chemical industry lobbyist in charge of the DEP.) 12) Sierra Club strongly believes that good government is good for the environment. Do you support Maines Clean Election law? Do you support efforts to strengthen the law by extending it to include gubernatorial candidates, closing loopholes and increasing campaign finance disclosure requirements? We cant expect to have good outcomes a sound plan and a growing economy when the inputs are dysfunctional, inequitable and often corrupting. The flood of money in politics is alienating more and more of us from the political process and discouraging participation in it. All of our electoral and legislating processes should be much more tightly insulated against the corrosion and corruption bred by uncontrolled and unregulated political money. Apart from the corruption of both politics and capitalism, the sheer force of money in politics today is alienating more and more Americans from the political process and discouraging participation in it. We can battle back in Maine by reinvigorating our Clean Elections program, by limiting in fair and constitutional ways the amounts of money that can be spent on election campaigns, by

Maine Chapter
44 Oak St, Suite 301, Portland, ME 04101 Phone: (207) 761-5616 Fax: (207) 773-6690 www.maine.sierraclub.org evening the playing field between small donors and big donors, by narrowing the ways in which political money can be raised by lobbyists and so-called bundlers, and by making the origins of all money spent on campaigns fully transparent. I would support extending the law to include, once again, candidates in gubernatorial elections. I also believe that the loophole that allows legislators to run clean while at the same time creating leadership PACs to collect vast sums of money from special interests must be closed. Voters need to be confident that the lawmakers whom they elect depend on them and make decisions that reflect their needs and concerns and not those of one or another set of special, narrow interests. When that confidence begins to break down, as it has in recent years, democracy is put at risk. 13) Please list any other information you would like us to consider in assessing your candidacy, including your activities and track record on conservation and environmental issues, whether in elected office, work history, education, or volunteer service in your community. Growing up in Bangor, I hiked all over Maine, camped in the summer and skied and snowshoed in the winter. I fished with my Uncle Gaston and my Uncle Abe on Moosehead Lake and ponds and lakes all over Penobscot, Hancock and Washington Counties. I learned to cast a fly and hike at dawn as a kid, and I loved every minute of life in Maines outdoors. No other candidate in this race has the demonstrated level of knowledge and commitment to natural resource protection and balanced use that I have forged over the past 45 years. When I worked with Ed Muskie, I helped write the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act so that Maines bays, rivers and air would be clean again. I learned that pickerel vs. payrolls was a false choice, and I have never forgotten that lesson. The most vital and enduring legacy of Ed Muskie and all those here in Maine who championed cleaning up our air and water has not been that we can have both, but that, in fact, we must have both that the vitality of Maines natural resource-based economy depends directly on protecting our environment. As Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy and Science of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President Carter, I supervised the policies and budgets for the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Park Service and the Forest Service. I was in charge of ending wasteful water projects; restoring the National Park Service, the Forest Service and EPA to healthy budget and personnel levels; building Americas first renewable energy and conservation programs; reclassifying Alaska lands and countless other matters. As a lawyer, I founded and built the worlds second largest environmental law firm and represented scores of cities, counties and states in battles over airports and highways. I was responsible for writing and negotiating the toughest noise regulations for airports in the world; supervised our firms pro bono work on the Edwards Dam case; and engineered the legal strategy that led to the landmark agreement to clean up the spent nuclear waste at West Valley, New York. People live here, move here and visit here because Maine has a special quality of place and a

Maine Chapter
44 Oak St, Suite 301, Portland, ME 04101 Phone: (207) 761-5616 Fax: (207) 773-6690 www.maine.sierraclub.org unique civic culture. Maintaining those important characteristics the very soul of Maine is one of the most important investments we can make in our future. That means respecting and protecting our natural environment and our wild and scenic places. That means preserving farmland, forests, harbors and downtowns. And that means ensuring that people in the coastal communities and historic mill towns of northern, southern, eastern, western and central Maine can both live there and make a living. You cant eat the view. We cannot do all things we need to do in Maine protect our natural resources, maintain our parks and recreation areas, invest in education, promote and develop Maine tourism and recreation without a growing economy. I want to lower the cost of living and doing business in Maine so that we can attract investment, jump start our economy and restore jobs, incomes and opportunity. And I want to invest in Maines competitive advantages our forests, farms, fisheries, renewable energy resources, quality places and people the distinctions that set us apart from other states. My responsibility if elected would be to appoint to positions of authority people who share the values that I have outlined above, who have no other, competing political agenda of their own, who are strong, experienced and knowledgeable in the areas over which they will exercise authority and who are capable of making the kinds of balanced and nuanced judgments that will preserve and protect the very soul of this state.