A proposal to add a "right to a healthy environment" to the state's constitution failed in the Maine House on Tuesday.
Five months ago, Maine became the first state in the nation to enshrine a "right to food" in the constitution despite concerns from opponents about potential legal challenges. Some environmentalists were hoping to follow-up that victory with a constitutional right to a "clean and healthy environment." Their argument is that government can't always be trusted to protect Maine's air, water or land. Three other states – Montana, Pennsylvania and New York – have added constitutional provisions dealing with environmental rights.
Rep. Margaret O’Neil, D-Saco, said constitutional protections of free speech and against unreasonable search and seizures “create a backstop against government encroachments.”
“By protecting our right to a clean and health environment in the constitution, we’ll create a parallel backstop that protects us from something that government might actively do that doesn’t protect our right or that protects us in situations when government doesn’t do enough to protect us,” O’Neil said during a House floor speech. “It’s an added check on our system.”
But opponents have said the proposal's language was too broad and not ready to be sent to voters. They also raised concerns about activists using a constitutional amendment to target forestry companies, farmers and fishermen or to attempt to block road projects.
"Amending the constitution is not a trivial thing and if you are going to do it, you need to do it with absolute perfection,” said Rep. Jeff Hanley, R-Pittston. “Because once you put something into the constitution, as an amendment, no future Legislature can come back and fix it."
While a majority of House members supported the proposed constitutional amendment, the 77-59 vote was well short of the two-thirds majority needed to send it to the statewide ballot.
