On Conservation Day, Maine Democrats warn of November ‘threat’ to state’s climate progress

Maine Democrats and environmental teams say the state has made progress on its efforts to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions and put together native cities for the impacts of local weather change.

However on World Conservation Day, Democrats say they view the opportunity of a 3rd, non-consecutive time period for former Gov. Paul LePage as a menace to that progress.

LePage is difficult incumbent Democrat Janet Mills and Unbiased Sam Hunkler in November.

“The work that we have carried out is a large step ahead,” mentioned state Rep. Lydia Blume, D-York. “Nevertheless, we have to proceed doing what we’re doing. And going backwards is de facto not an choice.”

Blume was one in every of a handful of Democrats and environmental activists who gathered Thursday morning on the Howard Hill Conservation Space in Augusta, which grew to become a flashpoint within the debate over Maine’s Land for Future program throughout LePage’s tenure.

LePage had held up voter-approved bonds for the conservation program, prompting a months-long debate with state lawmakers.

Environmental activists praised the state’s four-year local weather motion plan, in addition to a slew of latest legal guidelines that state legislators have handed lately, which created a local weather corps, established a local weather schooling program and funded different initiatives.

Cole Cochrane from Maine Youth Motion mentioned younger folks have just lately had a voice in drafting these insurance policies. However he worries they will lose the prospect fully if LePage wins a 3rd non-consecutive time period.

“We face a dire future because the local weather disaster worsens,” Cochrane mentioned. “And having a governor that may ignore the problems can have enormous long-term impacts, impacts that my technology are going to face.”

Democrats on Thursday cited LePage’s help for offshore oil drilling and the record of environmental regulatory rollbacks that he proposed throughout his first days in workplace as liabilities.

When requested concerning the former governor’s environmental report, marketing campaign spokesman Brent Littlefield pointed to a $900,000 settlement that Maine reached with Chevron over a decades-long oil leak on the Penobscot River whereas LePage was in workplace. And he mentioned that Maine ought to be centered on what he believes is the true downside, an financial recession that may problem whoever turns into the subsequent governor.