Whether they’re hauling potatoes, wood chips or logs, most Presque Isle-area truckers have something in common, Russell Bugbee says.

“We’re slowly going broke,” the trucker said Friday. “The price of fuel is killing us. Truckers can fuel up in Virginia for $3 a gallon. In Presque Isle, it’s $3.69 a gallon. Somewhere along the line somebody is making money off the deal and it ain’t the guy with the truck.”

That’s why Bugbee, of RW Bugbee Trucking of Mapleton, will help host a meeting of the Coalition to Lower Fuel Prices in Maine for the public at 10 a.m. Feb. 2, at Presque Isle Middle School.

Bugbee said he knows of 20 independent forest products industry truckers and some logging outfits in the Presque Isle area who have shut down due to high diesel prices.

The coalition is a grassroots effort founded by Al and Belinda Raymond of Kingman, and has met in Lincoln, Damariscotta and Skowhegan since early December. Belinda Raymond encourages anyone interested in helping lower fuel prices, especially the state’s independent logging truckers, to attend the meeting.

Although some group members call it a token gesture, the coalition had one success earlier this week. Gov. John Baldacci signed into law an emergency bill that increases truck weight limits from 100,000 pounds to 105,000 pounds for six-axle trucks until April 1. This allows truckers to haul more wood less often. The legislation arose from coalition lobbying.

Three more emergency bills that would help truckers survive the winter will be reviewed by state legislative committees next week, Belinda Raymond said.

State Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, D-Orono, seeks a temporary on-road fuel-tax rebate for truckers. Rep. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, wants a temporary repeal of axle weight limitations on trucks hauling wood. Rep. Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, seeks to restructure how truckers are fined for violations.

“They have worked very hard, Senator Schneider and Representative Thomas, to get this together so fast,” Raymond said Friday. “Senator Schneider has been chasing the numbers to support her position and that’s been very difficult. Representative Thomas used to drive a truck, so he has been very insightful. He has just worked his butt off to get this done.”

On Friday, state officials estimated that about 4,500 of the state’s 8,200 registered trucks haul forest industry product from the woods to mills and to market, Raymond said.

Coalition supporters fear that more than 50 of the state’s independent truckers have been forced to shut down by rising fuel costs. Continued shutdowns, they say, imperil the state’s entire $11.5 billion forest products industry, as the truckers haul fiber from woods to mills to market.

If a lack of truckers helps create insufficient fiber stockpiles at mills and logging yards, supporters say, mills could be forced to shut down during mud season, when logging roads are impassible, creating a greater crisis in the forest products industry.

Coalition supporters also fear that high diesel prices are cutting into the state industries’ ability to compete against other states or countries that sell wood or other forest products, such as paper.

“Everybody is welcome to this meeting because it concerns everybody – farmers, people that raise gardens – anybody that buys fuel,” Bugbee said. “There’s too much at stake for people to ignore this.”

For information visit Raymond’s Web site, coalitiontolowerfuelprices.cfsites.org.

nsambides@bangordailynews.net

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Fast facts

Who: The Coalition to Lower Fuel Prices in Maine; interested residents

What: A public meeting with federal and state representatives to discuss the effect of high gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil and other energy sources

Where: Presque Isle Middle School in Presque Isle

When: 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 2

Why: High energy prices are having a devastating impact on residents and the state’s economy

For further info: Call Russell Bugbee at 768-1299 or see coalitiontolowerfuelprices.cfsites.org