Acadia Center Comments on Maine PUC Docket 2020-00344 Comments in Response to Commission’s Straw Proposal
Letter to Congress: Passing American Jobs Plan is Essential
Considerations for LDC and Consultant Use of 2050 Roadmap and 2030 Clean Energy Climate Plan in D.P.U. Docket 20-80
LD 1702 – An Act To Authorize General Fund Bond Issues To Improve Transportation and National Guard Infrastructure and To Promote the Conservation of Land, Working Waterfronts, Water Access and Outdoor Recreation
Maine’s extensive natural forests play an essential role in capturing atmospheric carbon. Currently, Maine forestland sequesters the equivalent of 60% of Maine’s greenhouse gas emissions and hold a tremendous potential – with greater focus and investment – to sequester even more carbon and offset further emissions from all other sectors of Maine’s economy. Acadia Center’s believes Maine, with its nearly 90 percent forested lands, is key to any robust state, regional, and national climate action. LD 1702 was one tool needed to protect and conserve natural lands and waters through a funding source that increases carbon storage opportunities, avoids emissions, and enhances climate adaptation and resilience.
Acadia Center Comments on Docket No. 13-06-02RE05, Investigation of Connecticut’s Local Distribution Companies Proposed Expansion Plans to Comply with Connecticut’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy—Program Review
LD 1572 – Resolve, To Analyze the Impact of Sea Level Rise
In “Maine Won’t Wait: A Four-Year Climate Action Plan for Maine,” the Maine Climate Council Scientific and Technical Subcommittee developed sea-level rise projections for Maine’s coastal areas. Based on those projections, the Council recommended Strategy F3, “the state commit to manage for 1.5 feet of relative sea-level rise by 2050, and 3.9 feet by 2100…[and] the state prepare to manage for 3 feet of relative sea-level rise by 2050 and 8.8 feet by 2100.” LD 1572 sets Strategy F3 into motion by requiring a consortium of State agencies to review their laws and rules and submit recommendations to incorporate consideration of 1.5 feet of relative sea level rise by 2050 and 3.9 feet by 2100 to help minimize project impacts of sea level rise on coastal communities and help Maine communities manage climate impacts and enhance resilience premised on science-based land-use planning tools.
LD 1498 – An Act To Prevent Increased Heating Fuel, Natural Gas, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Pricing in Maine by Prohibiting Adoption of Rules Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions
LD 1498 served to delay any climate action by making it a substantive rule subject to legislative approval. The bill makes any executive/agency action that raises the price of fossil fuels in the short term – including heating oil, gas, propane – something that needs to be approved by the Legislature. In doing so, it subjects future Mainers to the significant impacts of the climate crisis and escalating costs of last-minute climate mitigation and encourages inaction on climate solutions. By imposing a requirement that the legislature individually approve any mechanism that might regulate the GHG emissions from the transportation sector, LD 1498 at best imposed unnecessary delay and at worst, takes away the ability of state agencies to follow the Climate Action Plan or use their discretion to employ the most cost-effective and consumer-friendly methods of achieving these carbon targets. The bill was defeated after an uprising by environmental groups.
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