Gov. Paul LePage asserted that the deliberations of his new wind energy commission will not be exempt from Maine's public meeting law, even though the executive order he signed Jan. 24 states that it is.
During the Maine Public call-in program Maine Calling, LePage characterized reports that the special commission’s meetings will be shielded from the press and public are "fake news."
"I'm not asking it to be exempt from anything,” says LePage. “I just want an executive order. I want a commission to be setup and I want them to study the full impact of wind power," he said.
But the executive order LePage signed clearly states that the wind commission's meetings will be exempt from the law that requires most deliberations by government-created boards or committees to be held in public.
The governor has come under fire from transparency advocates and wind power advocates for making the meetings of the commission secret.
