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Mills credits heat pump program for declining oil heat use

Gov. Janet Mills, center, and U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm tour Stroudwater Apartments in Westbrook on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. The building incorporates several energy-saving features, including heat pumps and highly-insulated windows
Ari Snider
/
Maine Public
Gov. Janet Mills, center, and U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm tour Stroudwater Apartments in Westbrook on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. The building incorporates several energy-saving features, including heat pumps and highly-insulated windows

The number of Maine homes using heating oil dropped 6% last year, the biggest annual shift since 2010, according to federal data.

The drop coincided with a major push to get more homes to use high efficiency heat pumps. Mills made widespread heat pump adoption a central platform of her plan to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

The state met its goal to install 100,000 heat pumps across the state in 2023, two years earlier than planned. It then set a new target of adding another 175,000 units by 2027.

In a statement, Mills said that when she took office, it was a priority to help Maine households move away from heating with from expensive, imported fossil fuels and use electric heat pumps instead.

"I am proud to see those efforts paying off, with reliance on heating oil rapidly declining across Maine and more homes than ever adopting heat pumps for affordable heating and cooling," Mills said.

Maine is still the most heating oil dependent state in the U.S. and fuel oil accounts for more than 52% of home heating.

But that has dropped from 70% in 2010. And now federal dollars are flooding into Maine to push that number down even further. In this year alone, the state has received $115 million in federal funding for heat pumps, according to the Mills administration.

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