We’re only halfway through it, but 2006 is beginning to feel like The Year Everything Changed. The price of energy is sky-high and showing no signs of returning to the levels we all planned on a few years ago; the pace of sprawl seems to be accelerating, even if some towns have thwarted Wal-Mart for the time being; we’ve begun to realize that if we’re going to have working waterfronts and livable landscapes, we’re going to have to protect them ourselves.
The signs aren’t all bad, either: sales of hybrid and other energy-efficient vehicles are up while SUVs seem to have lost their edge in the market. There is growing interest in alternative fuels such as biodiesel. The dig-it-up-and-burn-it philosophy that has been dominant at the national level is increasingly being questioned. Yes, we’re still far too dependent on foreign oil, but at least we’re hearing the beginnings of a debate about it, and we’re starting to see alternatives.
One interesting choice will be whether or not to continue down the market-driven path we’ve been on for the past 20 years. We have de-regulated just about everything from banks to electricity to telephones to airlines; the results have been mixed; it may be time to consider where deregulation has worked and where it has not.
Another choice, just as interesting, will be where to put our energies as we move to “protect,” “save,” “preserve,” “sustainably develop” or “conserve” the Maine coast. (The quotation marks are deliberate, reflecting the many different futures we all envision out there.) As the GrowSmart project (see page 4) will doubtless reveal, Mainers are divided on what should happen to their coast. For some it will be an engine of economic development; for others a protected place of great natural beauty; for still others a laboratory where communities will find new paths to the future.
A third choice will be where — at what level — to make decisions. Will the future of the coast be determined from afar, by international market forces or by federal government fiat? By the state, acting through permits, regulations, laws and zoning? By towns and cities whose voters pass ordinances at town meetings? Or by individuals banding together at the most local level — literally in neighborhoods — to shape their future?
In all likelihood the future will be determined at all levels, in the usual messy, imperfect, mostly democratic way we have grown accustomed to. The state is stepping in with bond funding to take the first steps to protect working waterfronts. Congress will pass laws and fund projects that affect the coast and its people; federal agencies will make the rules we all must play by. Global forces will play their part.
“The future is yours if you get out there,” remarks one advocate quoted in our Wal-Mart story. She is suggesting, of course, that the victory goes to the people who stand up for what they believe. And that’s something that takes place most often at the community or neighborhood level. Coastal Maine isn’t as rural as we sometimes think it is; it’s largely suburban and even urban — a region of neighborhoods, if you will, and thinking about it that way will be important as we seek ways to protect its character.