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Mainers weigh in on the state's new plan for tackling climate change

Attendees peruse posters outlining sections of the Maine Climate Council's new draft climate plan.
Molly Enking/Maine Public
Attendees peruse posters outlining sections of the Maine Climate Council's new draft climate plan.

In September, the Maine Climate Council took its 2024 draft plan, unofficially dubbed ‘Maine Won’t Wait 2.0’, on the road, hitting six towns throughout Maine: Presque Isle, Bangor, Ellsworth, Portland, Biddeford and Lewiston where about 40 people turned out for a meeting at the library.

They came to hear, and give input on, the state's new draft climate plan. Climate Council Co-Chair Hannah Pingree kicked off the evening.

"I will say, this is a very on the ball crowd because I think if I combine all of those you've practically come up with every strategy that's already in the state's climate action plan. So this is going to be a great conversation tonight," Pingree said.

The large room is decorated with colorful posters breaking down different sections of the proposal: transportation, land use, sanitation, resiliency, solar and wind power. Participants are instructed to vote on which items they think should be top priority for the state.

"So, now is when we're going to dive into these small group discussions. So, you will introduce yourselves like the wonderful neighbors you are!" Abigail Hayne tells the crowd.

In Maine, winters are two weeks shorter than average, summers break temperature records, and sea levels are eight inches higher than they were a century ago. In the face of human-caused climate change, the Maine Climate Council will finalize its updated 2024 climate plan in the coming months, outlining the state's plan to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2045, among other goals. The new draft is a crucial step towards completing the final plan, due December 1.

So far, about 3,000 people, including more than 350 Mainers who attended the meetings in person, have weighed in. The most popular issues differ depending on where people are from, Maine Climate Council Co-Chair Melanie Loyzim said.

"In Bangor and Portland, nobody was interested in waste management. But then in Ellsworth, the table was full of people wanting to discuss food waste, one of the top issues of interest in Ellsworth," she said.

Still, some feedback the council received was universal: people wanted to reduce vehicle miles traveled, and more focus on resiliency efforts, especially in the wake of last winter's devastating storms. Loyzim said one of the main differences between the 2020 and 2024 plans is better planning for future climate emergencies.

“Providing adequate support to Maine’s communities to be able to help their citizens in an emergency, doing more in terms of emergency planning and communication and looking at vulnerable infrastructure like roads and our pier stocks and wharves and our waterfronts and homes that are along our tidal rivers,” she said.

“I think there is a much greater recognition that some of those effects of climate change are happening now.”

The new plan will also try to ensure that lower income, rural and disadvantaged communities in Maine don't bear the burden for climate change strategies. In Portland, one attendee raised housing as an example.

"You can't have resilient communities if you don't have safe, warm, affordable, accessible housing," she said, while sharing her breakout group's findings with the room.

Another attendee, Myles Smith of the group Mainers for Smarter Transportation, said he's concerned the state isn't taking its own plan seriously.

"One of the clear flaws in what the state is doing right now is that the Maine turnpike authority has said that the Gorham Connector will increase vehicle miles traveled, it goes 100% against our own climate plan, he said, during the breakout sessions at the transportation table. "And I don't understand why the leaders of the state are allowing it to go through."

Loyzim said that the climate plan is not enforceable; it’s a set of recommendations for the Governor and legislature. She also said it’s going to be "absolutely impossible" to implement the entire plan.

"There is, again, not going to be enough money to fund everything that people would like to have funded," she said. "But that doesn't mean that those aren't things that should still be recommended, because we may find ways to make those things happen, even without the funding necessarily being available today to do it."

For example, she said the state was able to fund more of the 2020 plan than expected after receiving funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law.

For now, the Climate Council is working to include takeaways from the meetings into the plan. The new proposal will be available for public comment from October 9 through the 21.

Maine Public’s Climate Desk is made possible by Androscoggin bank, with additional support from Evergreen Home Performance, Bigelow Laboratory, & Lee Auto Malls.