DAMARISCOTTA – For the second time in two weeks, truckers gathered to protest the soaring diesel fuel prices that are threatening their businesses, livelihood, homes and families.

Many blamed oil company speculators for driving up market prices and the inertia of state and local governments to correct bureaucratic regulations affecting trucking operations.

About 75 truckers representing the Coalition to Lower Fuel Prices in Maine and the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine gathered for a regional meeting Dec. 1 at the Great Salt Bay School gymnasium.

“Too many truckers are hurting because of excessive taxes, high fuel prices and the cost of keeping trucks on the road,” said meeting host Larry Sidelinger, owner of Yankee Pride trucking company in Damariscotta.

“More and more truckers are getting off the road,” he said, adding that he knew of nine truckers who had closed operations in November.

Many speakers expressed the view that government has let the truckers and other businesses down, and one said the middle class is being “terrorized” by overregulation, high taxes and increases in almost every area possible. Quoting Jeffrey Payson, general manager of Northeast Transport of Waldoboro, who said that “a flood begins with a single drop of water,” Sidelinger said the movement started a few weeks ago when trucking company owners Albert and Belinda Raymond of Kingman started making phone calls to their network.

“One call led to another, and next thing you know they had a meeting in Lincoln, which I happened to hear about from one of my drivers,” Sidelinger said of that other regional protest Nov. 17, which drew 400.

Crude-oil speculators were the topic of much of the discussion.

“This is war, people,” said Payson, who operates a fleet of 16 trucks. “It’s the workingman against the ultrawealthy. [Crude-oil] speculators are trading our lives away.”

State fees and excise taxes are helping to push truckers to the limit, as well.

Dawna Hannan, a single-owner and operator from Greene, said she bought a new truck in Charlotte, N.C., at 76 percent of the sticker price. When she tried to register the truck in Maine, she was told she had to pay sales tax on the full sticker price value.

William Perkins Sr., a truck driver from Jefferson, said he’s “really getting hit” by fuel costs that have gone up 50 cents a gallon in the past two weeks.

“I pay $600, $700 for fuel. That’s more than what the load pays,” he said.

Brian Souers of Treeline Inc. of Lincoln wondered whether it would be possible to make it so that people who actually have crude oil, the end-users, could actually trade crude.

Coalition members Souers, the Raymonds, Sidelinger, Larry Harper, Wendy Bowden and Tom Cushman, president of the logging contractors, on Friday had met with Gov. John Baldacci at the State House. The group presented him with an eight-point program seeking declaration of a civil emergency regarding the high price of diesel fuel and the impact on the state’s forest products industry.

Within four hours, Baldacci had issued an announcement of the civil emergency.

“Governor Baldacci really responded when we needed him,” said Belinda Raymond.

First District Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, urged all truck drivers to link together and let their officials know their plight.

“We are all on the edge,” Allen said.

Regional representative Deborah McNeil attended the protest for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, and state office representative William S. Card was there for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.

State Sen. Dana Dow, R-Waldoboro, stressed the need to “push hard for a repeal of the highway fuel tax.”

State Rep. Wendy Pieh, D-Bremen, invited truckers to take their trucks to Augusta.

“Please come down with your trucks, blow your horns, and be heard,” she said.

The 80,000-pound vehicle weight limits on Interstate 95 north of Augusta and Interstate 395 create a problem for truckers, too. Under the law, truckers may carry 100,000 pounds on state roads, which forces them to use secondary roads with heavy loads, a dilemma that angers Jim Bacon of Bacon Transport in Mercer, who owns two trucks.

Mercer spoke strongly on behalf of the truckers, saying, “We are the people. We have the keys to making this situation work right here, people,” he said, shaking his keys. “Let’s shut these trucks off.”

Kevin Hawkes, a commercial fisherman, asked how far government officials would let fuel prices go up before they took action.

Belinda Raymond reminded everyone that the Department of Public Safety would hold a public hearing on the 100-mile, 60-hour rule, which places some restrictions that truckers believe are unnecessary and are costly, in the Gambling Control Board Room at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the State House.

George Chappell may be reached at gchappell@bangordailynews.net or 236-4598.