Jon Reisman

Maine’s 2020 Climate Action Plan and 2024 Update commit Maine to:

• reducing our Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG);

• transitioning away from fossil fuels and gas-powered vehicles;

• promoting equity;

• increasing public conserved lands to 30% of the state by 2030. 

What you will not find in the Plan/Update is:

• any estimate of how much climate change will be averted by the GHG emission reductions;

• any estimate of the effects on energy prices;

• any definition of equity, or any discussion of the adverse disparate impacts on rural Maine and the 2nd Congressional District;

• Transparency about the distribution, definition, benefits, and burdens of public conserved lands.

Republicans have a number of bills to address climate and energy policy opacity, inequity, and ineffectiveness including:

• 4 Bills to Repeal Net Metering [https://legislature.maine.gov/committee/#Committees/EUT ] (LD 32, 257, 359, 450) would end the policy which is enriching solar crony capitalists whilst driving electric rates towards $.40/kWh and averting not one bit of climate change whatsoever. Here is part of the testimony I am submitting for the Feb. 25 hearing: ... (These bills) are the first of many energy and climate bills I believe you will be hearing this session. I believe this is because our current policies have opaquely resulted in increasingly expensive energy and an increasingly less reliable grid, whilst averting no climate change whatsoever and refusing to be transparent about any of it. If that was my policy record, I’d want to hide and obfuscate it too. We need honest and transparent energy and climate policies. In my opinion, we have neither. 

An Act to Require Rules Designed to Reduce Climate Change to Include Estimates of the Reduction in Adverse Climate Effects and of the Cost to Consumers (LD 495 [https://legislature.maine.gov/bills/display_ps.asp?snum=132&paper=HP0255... ), sponsored by House Minority Leader Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, and a host (9!) of GOP energy and environmental policy legislative leaders. This bill requires the Department of Environmental Protection, when adopting rules designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to issue an estimate of the level of adverse effects on the climate that will be prevented by the reduction in emissions and the costs associated with the reduction in emissions that will be borne by consumers. Public Hearing set for Feb. 24, 11 a.m., before the Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

• An Act to Define and Assess Equity (no LD or Judiciary Committee hearing date yet), sponsored by Leader Faulkingham. This bill would require State Agencies and Public K-12 and higher education to define and assess equity if they promote equity in any policy area. Considering that (undefined)equity is all over Maine climate, energy, education, and other policy areas and the Trump administration’s drive to defund and end DEI, requiring a definition and metrics for equity is a moderate and reasonable response to the pure policy malpractice of promoting an undefined policy goal and having the chutzpah to develop assessment metrics for that undefined goal.

• An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50 Percent of Any County (LD 183 [https://legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/HP0116?legislature=132]) sponsored by Leader Faulkingham and the entire Washington County Delegation. This bill limits publicly owned land in the State to no more than 50% of the land area in any county. The bill also allows the State, a county, or a municipality to exceed the limits with the approval of 2/3 of each House of the Legislature. The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is required to report biannually beginning April 15, 2026, to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over public lands matters on the percentage of federal, state, county, and municipal property ownership statewide and by county. The Feb. 6 hearing and testimony before the Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry (ACF) Committee alarmed [https://www.wvomfm.com/episode/rewind-02-07-jon-reisman-ld-183-1415/] the land trust/environmental/climate industrial complex sufficiently to launch an Empire Strikes Back [https://www.wvomfm.com/episode/rewind-02-11-mchts-jeff-romano-1200/] counterattack. The work session has not yet been scheduled.

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at [email protected].