It is unacceptable for vital environmental and public health protections to be subverted in the service of corporate interests. We ask the leaders of the Maine Legislature to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation of the DEP to detail what unethical behavior has been committed, what laws, if any, have been broken, and what new regulations are needed to prevent this kind of improper influence in the future.

The Portland Press Herald has recently revealed how former corporate lobbyists in positions of power in the LePage administration, including DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho, have systematically used staff intimidation, lack of enforcement and delayed implementation of environmental and public health initiatives to benefit multi-million dollar corporations including pharmaceutical, chemical, and energy companies that were recently their clients.

You can read more here: http://www.pressherald.com/special/Lobbyist_in_the_henhouse_DEP_series.html