Maine truckers hoping for Capitol ‘miracle’

LINCOLN – Truckers embarking upon an 800-mile journey to Washington, D.C., sought a repeat of one of the Bible’s biggest miracles before they got under way early Sunday.

“Let’s ask the Lord to part some Red Seas for us and make a way where there doesn’t seem to be any,” the Rev. Tim Shaw, pastor of Community Evangelist Temple of Lincoln, told the dozen truckers arrayed around him at a former auto dealership off Route 6.

The truckers knew that they would need something almost miraculous – a parting of the red tape – to succeed in their quest: to free the nation’s haulers of runaway diesel fuel prices.

But they were optimistic.

“We’ve got a good convoy here now,” said Brian Souers, a member of the Coalition to Lower Fuel Prices, the Kingman-based organization of independent truckers and other motorists formed late last year to oppose fuel-price spikes. “The spirits are high.”

About 15 vehicles, including 10 18-wheelers, were in the convoy from Lincoln as they drove into Harrisburg, Pa., at about 7 p.m., up from the seven trucks and a van that departed Lincoln shortly after 6 a.m.

Organized by Al and Belinda Raymond of Kingman, the coalition’s co-founders, the convoy picked up a dozen other independent truckers for varying intervals as it rolled along Interstate 95, the Maine Turnpike and the lower New England states.

It joined more than 200 trucks from 27 states that were forming up in Harrisburg before descending upon the capital this morning.

At least 1,000 trucks and 3,000 to 10,000 people will participate in the rally, including D.C. cab drivers and truckers from as far away as Iowa, said Mark Kirsch, a co-organizer of Truckers and Citizens United, a Harrisburg-based nationwide coalition opposing high fuel costs.

“The costs of fuels are ridiculous, and they are killing everything,” Kirsch said.

Nationwide, diesel prices average around $4 per gallon. In Maine, prices ranged Sunday from $4.24 to $4.56 per gallon, according to mainegasprices.com. That’s almost $2 per gallon higher than prices a year ago, a difference that has forced at least 50 Maine independent truckers and trucking companies to fold.

Trucking advocates fear that a continued spike in energy costs will force mill closures and other catastrophes in the forest products industry and start affecting other industries as well. Prices for food and retail goods are already starting to spike.

At a rest stop in Kennebunk, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen said he shares the truckers’ frustrations. Allen said it’s shameful to see large oil companies and speculators take in big profits while hardworking truckers are suffering.

Several federal bills aimed at curtailing rampant price speculation and other aspects of the fuel crunch are pending.

The truckers plan to drive past the Capitol and White House and then park at RFK Stadium. They’ll take a shuttle from the stadium back to the Capitol for a rally at 11 a.m. No street closures are planned, but the influx of trucks could cause traffic disruptions during the morning rush hour.

The Maine contingent hopes to visit with Maine’s federal delegation today before returning Monday night, Belinda Raymond said.

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