Maine is one of the few states in the nation that allows public participation in the licensing, rulemaking and appeals of decisions reached under state environmental protection laws. The 10 citizen members of the Board of Environmental Protection are the stopgap for such enforcement. But if Independent Eliot Cutler becomes Maine's next governor, the BEP could become a thing of the past. Cutler wants to replace the BEP with a panel of judges as a way to speed up the permitting process for new business.

Unlike his Republican opponent, Paul LePage, who thinks Maine's environmental regulations are too burdensome, Independent Eliot Cutler thinks it's Maine's bureaucracy, not environmental standards, that are getting in the way of economic progress. He calls it "The Wall of No."

"The problem is that the process of administering those regulations, of enforcing them, has created a maze that is discouraging to anybody who wants to do business," Cutler says.

Cutler has proposed abolishing the BEP, which oversees the Department of Environmental Protection, and replacing it with a three-judge Appellate Board of Review. He says Maine doesn't need a citizen panel undoing the work of a professional department, especially if the work is costly, confusing and redundant.

"Someone who wants to build or do something in the state of Maine usually has to get a permit or a license from the Department of Environmental Protection; and they can go through the entire process and get the license and permit and then someone who doesn't like the result can petition a citizen board to take over the matter, go all the way back to square one or go off the tracks," Cutler says. "It stands like a red light at the gateway to the state of Maine and it keeps out investment. We don't need to have it and I want to get rid of it."

But state Sen. Seth Goodall, a Democrat who serves as co-chair of the Legislature's Natural Resources Committee says Cutler's premise is flawed. He points out that more than $5 billion worth of permits have been granted by the DEP since Gov. John Baldacci took office.

For the record, Goodall supports Democrat Libby Mitchell for governor. He says the BEP is essential for environmental protection and operates in an efficient manner, with minimal staff and a budget of about $300,000.

"Currently there are two positions, at times with additional assistance from the DEP, to help the board, and if you were to eliminate the Board of Environmental Protection, you'd still have to have staff for the judges, and that is going to create an additional level of government," Goodall says.

Goodall points out that the BEP's budget is paid for entirely through license fees, not the general fund. Like Cutler, Goodall is also an attorney by training and he remains skeptical that Maine judges and court clerks will have the scheduling flexibility to accommodate additional duties, when their dockets are already so full. Cutler is not proposing to hire new judges, just shuffle duties.

"I don't believe in three-judge courts; I think that the broader range of citizen representation that you have the better off you are," says Bill Townsend, an environmental attorney and Maine conservationist who says he cannot support taking citizen involvement out of environmental protection.

The 10 members of the BEP are selected by the governor to represent a wide range of interests. According to its Website, current members have backgrounds in municipal government, economic and community development, engineering, aquatic biology, forestry and environmental law.

They serve staggered, four-year terms and can spend months educating themselves on a particular issue, something Townsend says a part-time judge may not have the luxury of doing.

Townsend also takes issue with Cutler's plan to strip the Land Use Regulation Commission of permitting and licensing duties and give them to the DEP. LURC is the equivalent of a state planning board for the unorganized territories. As a former LURC commissioner himself, Townsend says this would limit the vision of a board whose primary duty is to see the big picture.

"Planners are often in never-never land and the enforcers don't know what the planners are thinking, and the planners don't know what the enforcers are thinking. I don't think that's a good set up at all," Townsend says.

Cutler says the poster child for this idea is Plum Creek, the company that received LURC's permission to develop its land holdings around Moosehead Lake and is now being challenged in court.

"I think Plum Creek ended up with about the right result, but it took $25 million, more or less, and about five years to get to that result -- it was a train wreck of a process," Cutler says. "I don't ever want to see that happen again in Maine because people outside Maine who think about investing here look at that and say, 'My goodness, we can put our money to work in West Virginia or Montana or Chile or somewhere else.' I want them to come here."

Matt Jacobson, a Republican who unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination for governor, is the executive director of the non-partisan employer recruiting firm Maine and Company. Jacobson agrees there's a case to be made for speeding up the pace of permitting in the highly competitive world of economic development.

"States that can say yes quickly, and I mean within 30 days, are going to win, and those that can't are going to lose," Jacobson says.

Cutler has also proposed creating an Office of Regulatory Review and Repeal, a new office in the governor's office to repeal or change regulations that are perceived as "standing in the the way of job growth." Cutler says the office will look at every new law and rule proposed by state agencies and determine its impact on the state's economy before it goes into effect.