Plum Creek contributions under scrutiny
Opponents of a massive development in the Moosehead Lake region are questioning the developer's contributions to supporters and land use regulators.
Plum Creek Timber Co., whose development was approved in September by the Land Use Regulation Commission, paid tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to groups that supported its plan, Maine Public Broadcasting Network and the Portland Press Herald reported. Groups that received money for attorney fees in order to participate in legal hearings include the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, which received $75,000, the Maine Snowmobile Association, which received over $100,000, and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.
Representatives of those groups told the publications the money allowed them to afford to participate in the hearings, but opponents of the development argued the funds were never disclosed, and that they swayed the commission's approval of the project. "It's the applicant paying to get testimony that's purporting to be independent but in fact isn't," Cathy Johnson of the Natural Resources Council of Maine told the Press Herald.
Plum Creek also paid $1.7 million to LURC to cover expenses for the technical review, legal costs, court reporters, hotels and meeting rooms, as well as the $55-per-day compensation for each of the commission's appointed members, Catherine Carroll, director of the commission, told the paper. Some of those payments are required by state law to keep taxpayers from footing the bill for large development proposals, and Caroll said the contributions did not influence the commission's decision, according to the paper.
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