LINCOLN – At least 50 Maine trucks will roll on Washington, D.C., April 28 as part of a national rally to protest record diesel prices that many Mainers say are crushing the state’s forest products and hauling industries.

Belinda Raymond, organizer and co-founder of the Coalition to Lower Fuel Prices, a grassroots organization formed last fall held a rally at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Sunday, drawing more than 150 people.

“We are looking at going to Washington with at least 50 trucks,” Raymond, of Kingman, said Sunday. “We would like to get 100.”

About 15 truckers at Sunday’s meeting signed their trucks up for the rally, Raymond said. With trucking companies already committed to the roll on Washington, 50 is a minimal number.

Sunday’s rally gave the coalition a chance to go over the bills it has helped get to the state Legislature, which are pending. The bills range from efforts to repeal the state fuel tax on forest-industry truckers; and a temporary repeal of sales taxes paid on truck maintenance and spare parts, which is almost passed, among others.

Nationwide, diesel prices average about $4 a gallon and from $4.09 to $4.43 per gallon in Maine as of Saturday, according to mainegasprices.com. That’s more than a $1.50 a gallon increase over where prices were a year ago.

In Maine, forest products industry truckers – who make up much of the coalition’s membership – are the connective tissue of the state’s forest products industry, hauling product from woods to mills to market. The industry is worth an estimated $11 billion to Maine’s economy annually.

Higher diesel prices have caused at least 50 independent Maine haulers to park their trucks, sparking fears that a lack of trucks could create a lack of raw materials for mills, according to the coalition.

It will cost truckers at least $1,200 per truck to roll on Washington, Raymond said.

It might seem ironic, if not absurd, for truckers to burn fuel driving to a protest of the high cost of fuel, but truckers feel they have little choice, said Brian Souers, president of Treeline Inc., a forest industries trucking company of Lincoln.

“It’s obviously necessary,” Souers said Sunday. “Energy prices have to be one of the top issues in the country today and I haven’t heard the president or the presidential candidates talk about it, or Congress. I don’t know what we have to do to get their attention, but maybe this will do it. It’s unbelievable, but everybody seems to ignore it.

“How can our national leadership be ignoring it so much? Where are their heads? Stuck in the sand,” he added. “It’s so crazy that we have to do this. It should be a hot topic down there.”

Michael Ireland, a Town Council member and member of the Knights of Columbus, proposed creating funds to help the coalition make the Washington protest and to fund coalition trips to Augusta.

Called the Support the Coalition Fund, the Augusta money will help the Raymonds, who have so far represented truckers, independent truckers and other motorists as volunteers, pay for their trips to Augusta, where they continue to work with legislators on bills aimed at improving trucking conditions.

The other fund is called the Trucks to D.C. Fund, Raymond said. Contributions to both can be mailed to: 1640 Kingman Road, Kingman 04451.

The coalition deserves support for having gotten so many bills into the state Legislature so fast, Souers said.

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