The state of Maine in all it's great wisdom strikes a blow in support of oil kingdoms of the Middle East and solidly against the local citizens by instructing Tom Joyal of Kennebunk to park his electric vehicle. Although the vehicle in question is legal under state law, the Maine State Police has issued their own rules that somehow make the vehicle illegal as registered so the state says to park it. It seems that Tom's ZAP electric truck has 3 wheels and is registered as a motorcycle as are other 3 wheel vehicles but it also has a steering wheel instead of handle bars and the state police inspection manual for motorcycles states that a motorcycle has to use handle bars so the vehicle is uninspectable under state police rules even though state law makes no mention of handlebars.

I thought that Governor Baldacci and others in state government supposedly supported alternate fueled vehicles and weaning the state from imported oil but at a time like this twisted state regulations rise to the top and put the stop to any efforts to actually accomplish this goal.

Tom Joyal is caught in the middle of a bureaucracy that has too many people with too much time on their hands and who provide no benefit to the citizens of this state.

I think Tom should just bolt a set of handlebars onto the steering wheel of his ZAP so he can get an inspection and run his truck around. The we'll see who can come up with the next reason why Mainers can't get away from big oil.

E-mail this entry to a friend