This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.This page is about a politician who is running for office or has recently run for office, is in office and campaigning for re-election, or is involved in some current political conflict or controversy. For that reason, this article is at increased risk of biased editing, talk-page trolling, and simple vandalism.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.
This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Maine, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of Maine on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MaineWikipedia:WikiProject MaineTemplate:WikiProject MaineMaine articles
In March 2013, Orcutt proposed a controversial tax on bicycling, arguing that bicycling is not environmentally friendly, because bicyclists exhale more CO2 than people who are walking.
Before any edit wars break out between his supporters and detractors, I would propose that we include the statements made about bicycling, but let's try to keep some perspective. Apparently, this is becoming some kind of cause du jour, and lots of outraged people are flocking to this page. Let's explain the situation, give a citation, and move on. I think a single sentence or two will do. Already, we've had one person revert the page, and several activists hastily re-add the information (sometimes in different places in the article). Let's just calm down, state the facts dispassionately, and remember that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a soap box or mouthpiece of the Revolution. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 15:21, 4 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I largely agree with NinjaRobotPirate's position. Nonetheless, Wikipedia is an evolving encyclopedia, and issues change in importance over time. Currently, Orcutt's idiotic stance has been the subject of extensive news coverage and has caused considerable outrage in the cycling community. The facts as currently stated are a minimum necessary to accurately represent the weight of a stupid action from a relatively insignificant politician who has only gained notoriety through his stupidity. Truthteller52 (talk) 4:16, 5 March 2013 (UTC)
