Here’s how experts want to see Maine combat climate change in the next four years • Maine Morning Star

Maine’s climate action plan is due for an update later this year, and experts have already put forward a draft of what they’d like to see included. 

The Maine Climate Council has until December 1 to update “Maine Won’t Wait,” the state’s four-year plan that outlines strategies for reducing carbon emissions and introducing cleaner energy sources in the state. In June, the council’s working groups dedicated to housing, transportation, coastal and marine sectors and more put forth suggestions for new and refined strategies the state should include in the updated plan. 

Gov. Janet Mills created the climate council in 2019 to establish an action plan to help the state achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 and combat climate change. A recently-released assessment of climate change and its impacts on Maine showed that the state’s climate is getting warmer and seeing more severe weather. According to the report, each year from 2020 through 2023 ranked among the ten warmest years on record for Maine. 

Many of the suggested strategies build on the efforts outlined in the original climate action plan, but there are a few new proposals  — such as resiliency measures to address increasingly common spills from residential heating oil tanks and bolstering local food production. 

Here’s a closer look at a sample of the strategies that the council is suggesting to implement in the next action plan.

Drive fewer miles, and do it with electric vehicles

As a rural state with limited public transportation, the last climate action plan underscored transportation — particularly personal vehicles — as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Maine. 

The proposed plan suggests accelerating the transition to light-duty electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids. Likewise, the climate council is proposing a faster switch to zero-emissions medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

In its proposal, the council’s Transportation Working Group outlined ways to aid in that transition including rebate programs to lower the cost and an education campaign for Maine communities and car dealerships to teach about the technology involved with electric cars and the incentives for buying one.

Maine toyed with the idea of ramping up electric vehicles earlier this year, but the Board of Environmental Protection rejected a rule in March that would have required clean, electric vehicles to make up the majority of new car sales by 2030. The board rejected it because of lingering questions about the policy, and said they believed such a large decision would be better placed in the hands of elected officials. 

However, the state has and continues to expand charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Maine plans to add more than 50 new high-speed EV chargers near busy highways and outdoor recreation areas in the next year. Currently, Maine has more than 1,000 EV charging ports across nearly 500 locations, according to a map from Efficiency Maine. 

Even with cleaner cars, the proposed plan still suggests reducing the number of vehicle miles traveled. 

Conserve more land, consume more local food 

The climate council’s working group dedicated to Natural and Working Lands proposed to further three of its original goals in the new action plan. These include conserving more acreage of land, consuming more food grown in Maine and incentivizing woodland owners to do more carbon removal and storage. 

The proposal notes that Maine has conserved about 50,000 acres annually in recent years, with a total of more than 4.3 million acres permanently conserved. That accounts for a little more than 22% of the state’s total acreage, but the working group is proposing to bump that up to 30% by 2030. To achieve that goal, the proposal said the annual conservation rate would need to increase nearly fivefold. 

Since about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food, there’s also a suggestion to increase the amount of food consumed in Maine from state food producers to 30% by the end of this decade. 

To do that, the proposal outlines ways to bolster local food production by strengthening Maine farms and creating more markets to increase access to local food. 

Make our buildings more resilient

To this point, climate strategies pertaining to buildings have focused on reducing the emissions coming from them. But the council’s Building, Infrastructure and Housing Working Group proposed an emphasis on resilience. 

From homes to offices, buildings in the state are susceptible to climate-driven hazards such as large storms that can cause damage and create power outages. The proposal said buildings are even at an increased risk for wildfires. Flooding has also increased the number of oil spills from residential heating oil tanks, the working group wrote in the proposal. 

That’s why the proposal has suggestions for increased resiliency measures like flood insurance and sump pumps with battery back-ups. The working group also recommends creating a new program to properly drain, remove and dispose of high-risk residential heating oil tanks and considering a comprehensive management plan for what to do with those tanks as the state transitions to cleaner energy sources. 

Public feedback

A survey is available on the council’s website for people to share suggested updates to the state’s strategies to address climate change. The written proposals and video presentations from all of the working groups are also available on the council’s website.