The Maine Supreme Judicial Court recently upheld the validity of two Maine laws, both of which promise to have a far-reaching impact upon state environmental legislation in the 1970s. The Site Location Act of 1970¹ establishes a strict land use control system by requiring state approval of the landsites of all major industrial, commercial, and residential developments. The constitutionality of this statute was affirmed by the state's highest court In the Matter of Spring Valley Development by Lakesites, Inc.²; the court rejected the plaintiffs' contention that the application of the Site Location Act would result in taking without compensation. Also enacted in 1970, the Coastal Conveyance Act,³ which imposes absolute and vicarious liability for oil spills upon oil terminal operators, survived a major constitutional challenge charging violations of the Admiralty, Commerce and Import-Export Clauses in a Maine supreme court decision in two related cases, Portland Pipe Line Corporationv. Environmental Improvement Commission and American Oil Company v. Environmental Improvement Commission.⁴

Both laws were prompted by a threatened invasion of oil-import operations and related refining industries anxious to exploit Maine's deepwater ports, unique along the Eastern seaboard. Before enactment of these two laws, Maine was vulnerable to all the ills accompanying an oil industrial boom. Before the Site Location Act was passed, Maine, like most other states, relied primarily upon municipalities to legislate land use regulations. Yet, in 1970, only one-third of Maine's townships were organized into municipal corporations, and of this fraction, only 15 percent were zoned. Consequently, 60 percent of the land area of the state was not subject to control by incorporated local governments. During that same year, a number of companies were considering the possibility of building major oil terminals and refineries in areas of the state where only a few local governments had passed any land use restrictions at all.⁵