Maine’s climate action plan is due to be updated later this year, and experts have already outlined a Draft of what they would like to see included.

The Maine Climate Council has until Dec. 1 to update “Maine Won't Wait,” the state's four-year plan that outlines strategies to reduce carbon emissions and adopt clean energy sources in the state. In June, the council's working groups covering housing, transportation, coastal and marine sectors and more put forward proposals for new and refined strategies the state should include in the updated plan.

Governor Janet Mills established the Climate Council in 2019 to create an action plan to help the state achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 and combat climate change. A recently released Evaluation of climate change and its Impact on Maine showed that the state's climate is getting warmer and severe weather is becoming more frequent. According to the report, every year from 2020 to 2023 was among the 10 warmest years on record in Maine.

Many of the strategies proposed build on efforts outlined in the original Climate Change Action Plan, but there are also some new proposals – such as resilience measures to address increasing levels of household heating oil tank leaks and to strengthen local food production.

Here is a closer look at some of the strategies the Council plans to implement in the next Action Plan.

Drive fewer kilometers – with electric vehicles

Because Maine is a rural state with limited public transportation, the last climate action plan noted that transportation, especially private vehicles, is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The proposed plan proposes to accelerate the transition to light electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids. Similarly, the Climate Council proposes a faster switch to zero-emission medium and heavy-duty vehicles.

In his SuggestionThe Council's Transportation Working Group has outlined ways to support this transition, including rebate programs to reduce costs and an education campaign for Maine communities and car dealerships to educate people about electric car technology and the incentives for purchasing one.

Maine toyed with the idea of ​​increasing the number of electric vehicles earlier this year, but the Board of Environmental Protection rejected a rule in March that would require clean electric vehicles to make up the majority of new car sales by 2030. The committee rejected the rule because questions remained about the rule, saying such a far-reaching decision would be better left in the hands of elected officials.

However, the state has Expand charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Maine plans to add more than 50 new high-speed electric vehicle charging stations near busy highways and outdoor recreation areas over the next year. Currently, Maine has more than 1,000 electric vehicle charging stations in nearly 500 Locationsaccording to a map from Efficiency Maine.

Even with cleaner cars, the proposed plan still proposes a reduction in miles driven.

Conserve more land, consume more local food

The Climate Council’s working group for natural and working areas proposed another three of his original goals in the new action plan. These include conserving more land, consuming more food grown in Maine, and creating incentives for forest owners to remove and store more carbon.

The proposal notes that Maine has protected about 20,000 acres annually in recent years, for a total of more than 1.8 million acres permanently protected. That's just over 22 percent of the state's total area, but the working group proposes increasing that to 30 percent by 2030. To achieve that goal, the proposal says, the annual protection rate would need to increase nearly fivefold.

Since approx. one third of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions related to food, there is also a proposal to increase the share of food consumed in Maine from state food producers to 30% by the end of this decade.

To that end, the proposal outlines ways to promote local food production by strengthening Maine farms and creating additional markets to improve access to local food.

Making our buildings more resilient

Until now, climate strategies for buildings have focused on reducing the emissions they emit. But the Council's working group on buildings, infrastructure and housing suggested a focus on resilience.

From homes to office buildings, buildings in the state are vulnerable to climate-related hazards such as major storms that can cause damage and power outages. The proposal says buildings are even at increased risk of wildfires. Flooding has also increased the number of oil spills from heating oil tanks in homes, the working group wrote in the proposal.

That's why the proposal includes suggestions for enhanced resilience measures such as flood insurance and sump pumps with battery backups. The working group also recommends creating a new program to properly drain, remove and dispose of high-risk residential heating oil tanks, and developing a comprehensive management plan for the use of these tanks as the state transitions to cleaner energy sources.

Public feedback

A Opinion poll is available on the council's website so people can share suggestions for updates to the state's strategies to combat climate change. written proposals and video presentations from all working groups are also available on the Council’s website.