NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard – can save a neighborhood. And it can humble an arrogant government body.

An enthusiastic NIMBY worked well a couple of years ago in Scarborough, when neighbors successfully challenged a developer’s proposal for zoned community density. Another seems to have worked in Westbrook, where neighbors discouraged a potential Wal-Mart. Still another defeated a proposal to install wind turbine generators on a mountain in the Maine woods. And NIMBYs seem to have kept liquefied gas terminals from anywhere on the Maine coast.

One of the more noteworthy NIMBYs currently in gestation is on Cape Cod. where the Kennedys and “green” friends object to wind turbines off shore because their pristine view would be compromised. While the Cape Cod game is still in extra innings, the NIMBY won/lost records here in the old Pine Tree State have been: Neighborhoods 100 – new proposals 0.

But – but – NIMBYs can also manufacture poor public decisions.

According to Lucius Flatley, the sage of South Gorham, sometimes NIMBY outcomes are not good.Some victories benefit the few to the disadvantage of the many. NIMBYers see ffensive activity, dangers or degradation: others see economic advantages, security and convenience. And a proper balance between the two rarely is easy to find.

The proposal to allow oil drilling in U.S. coastal waters is a NIMBY writ large.

Using a typical Wal-Mart proposition as a benchmark for comparison with the drilling question, Lucius observed that people who object to Wal-Marts often base their argument on “save the neighborhood store” – a benefit restricted largely to the owner of said store. People who object to drilling do so largely to protect beaches from potential oil spills. A lost job in the corner grocery may produce two jobs in a Wal-Mart. A Canadian summer visitor lost to Old Orchard Beach may produce enough heating and diesel oil for the Flatley farm.

For a neighborhood to deny a liquefied gas terminal in Washington County is to levy a “heating tax” on the entire state. To prevent wind generation on a mountain top in western Maine is to cost every dentist in the state extra pennies for his friendly drill. To deny domestic oil production off the sunny coast of Florida is to award Dubai more dollars for man-made sand islands and 200-floor hotels.

A few who scorn Wal-Mart are people to whom prices are unimportant. These people are often vociferous tax-cutters themselves and, as such, should realize that with its prices averaging 17 percent below competitors, Wal Mart saves U.S. consumers $200 billion a year. By the same measure, domestic oil has cost advantages. Most Maineaics can not afford 5 bucks a gallon for heating oil.

Flatley’s other points can be summarized quickly.

Some objection to Wal-Mart is green – but NIMBY may not be the best tool. The world is an island, and gases from oil drilling and production seem more easily regulated by the U.S. off the coast of New Jersey than in Mesopotamia

For Social Security planners, a Wal-Mart center can be an ideal place for elderly housing. All necessities of life within easy walk. Draw your own comparison with domestic oil production versus tankers through the straits of Hormuz.

Having heard all that, Flatley asked if we can really heat our homes from woodlots? Should we continue to send shiploads of dollars to the Arabs indefinitely? On the other hand, how important are the environmental downsides? And how severe do they actually promise to be? Is it worthwhile to begin now – even if such action may produce nothing for five or ten years? Can oil drilling be permitted concurrently with research into other sources of energy or will they interfere with one another? What is the alternative?

He left the questions open. And advised everyone to follow the debate in Congress closely – using any media source other than Fox News.

Rodney Quinn, who lives in Gorham, is a former Maine secretary of state. He can be contacted at [email protected].