A few months ago, many of you gathered at Old Towne to announce a ground-breaking preliminary agreement that would be good for the environment, clean energy, the tribe and the state.

Today at Veazie Dam we are making it official:

• The Penobscot River will be restored.

• The salmon and other fish will rebound.

• The Penobscot Indian Nation will benefit from restoration of a culturally and economically important fishery,

• The citizens of Maine will continue to enjoy the hydroelectric power the river produces.

• A world of improved recreational opportunities will be opened--including canoeing, kayaking, fishing, river festivals and wildlife watching.

I applaud all those who have worked so hard to make this day happen. The Department of Interior and its agencies - notably the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service - are proud to have been part of a coalition of dedicated people working to hammer out this agreement.

More important than public ceremonies are the labors of dedicated people like you over the past four years. PPL approached the Fish and Wildlife Service and other interested parties to talk about possible solutions to the long-running legal fights and environmental questions about the dams.

Think about the diverse group who sat down together:
executives of a power company that owns dams on the river, environmentalists and sportsmen who have tried to get the dams torn down, state and federal agencies and members of a Native American tribe that has fished the river for 10,000 years.

It might have been a lot easier to denounce each other in newspaper headline - and file endless legal documents - without ever really listening to each other. Everyone could have gambled in a winner-takes-all game, instead of struggling to find common ground.

Through holidays, family celebrations and personal tragedies, the negotiations continued. A lot of sweat and give-and-take went into the agreements we will finalize today.

Judy Stolfo, one of the Department of the Interior's negotiating representatives, tells a story from a day in 2001 in Portland. It was fairly early in the negotiations, when the discussions were getting difficult.

John Banks of the Penobscot Indian Nation asked for a moment at the beginning of the discussions. (I believe John is here today?) John began with a Penobscot prayer and then touched each negotiator in turn with an eagle feather, asking that each remember the goal of doing what is good for all and finding middle ground.

It was difficult for each party to give up ground, but they did so for the mutual benefit of all. Judy says she thought of that day whenever things got tough during the negotiations. (In retrospect, she wishes she'd asked John to bring the eagle feather more often.)

All that work was certainly worthwhile.

The agreement we sign today illustrates the middle ground that is most beneficial for all. Two dams will be removed: Veazie Dam, which you see behind me, and Great Works. The Penobscot River Restoration Trust, a newly formed nonprofit, will seek the approval of the Fish and Wildlife Service to decommission a third dam, Howland, and construct a state-of-the-art fish bypass around it. If feasible, this arrangement will maintain the Howland impoundment.

The Penobscot River Restoration Trust will raise $25 million to pay PPL Corporation for the dams. PPL in turn will increase power generation on six other dams on the Penobscot and its tributaries.

At the conclusion of our remarks, we will have a signing ceremony. In addition, the final agreement filed today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will guide the sale of the three dams and the regulatory filings required for completion of this project.

This agreement makes history in so many ways:

First, the agreement opens improved access to 500 miles of the Penobscot River, probably the most significant step to restore Atlantic salmon in the past century. This is crucially important because considering that this river has the largest remaining population of Atlantic salmon in the nation.

Second, a progressive utility - PPL Corporation - has agreed to dam removal for the sake of the environment.

Third, environmental partners have agreed to drop their challenges to other dams on the Penobscot in return for the environmental benefits of removing the selected dams.

Fourth, electric needs of Maine's families and factories will continue to be met through clean and renewable hydropower by making the remaining dams more efficient.

Fifth, and most important, those of you involved in restoring the Penobscot have set an example for the rest of the nation of how partnerships can result in win-win situations for both energy and the environment.

The Penobscot Model can be used in many other types of environmental dilemmas to show just what John Banks was trying to show with the eagle feather. It shows what I call the 4Cs-communication, consultation and cooperation, all in the name of conservation. We are using this cooperative conservation approach on other projects in Maine - wetlands, endangered species habitat and healthy forests.

Sitting down together instead of demonizing each other.

The Bush Administration believes that progress can be made thru partnerships between the government and the people. Rather than depending entirely on command and control laws, we need to empower the American people to take conservation into their own hands.

Your efforts will benefit millions of fish, the continuation of ancient tribal culture and future generations of angler and outdoor enthusiasts.

Your partnership is your biggest historical accomplishment. The Penobscot Mode is a cooperative conservation model for the 21st century of how environmental protection, energy availability, and economic opportunities can go hand-in-hand when we all work together.