“This far-reaching plan to confront the climate crisis sets Maine apart as a national leader,” said Emily Green, Senior Attorney at CLF. “It puts us on track to meet our climate goals and grow our economy while making Maine’s communities more resilient to climate impacts. Now comes the hard part: implementing the plan, and we look forward to working with people across Maine to get it done.”
We all know about clean, local energy like solar and wind. But there’s another form of clean energy: energy efficiency. Because the cleanest, cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use at all.
“Three years ago this month, state energy officials totally disregarded—as ‘disruptive’—the attempts of Spanish-speaking residents to participate in a critical decision that will affect their community for decades,” said Amy Laura Cahn, Senior Attorney and Interim Director for Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice at Conservation Law Foundation, “Since that time, the EFSB has consistently failed to live up to its language access obligations under federal law. In yet another insult to this community, residents with limited access to technology will be further marginalized by a remote hearing.”
These days, the scariest monster I can conjure wears a tailored suit and sits behind the desk of a dirty oil or gas company deliberately blocking climate action. Runner up is another man in a suit – a legislator too scared to stand up to that fossil fuel executive and protect the people who voted him into office.
While superficially a snooze fest, energy efficiency is a powerful tool in the fight against climate change and towards a more equitable future. (It can also save you money, clean up our air, and even improve your health.)
New England is extremely vulnerable to climate change. It’s a crisis not only for the environment, but also for the health of our communities. It will take systemic change in the way we do business, the way we govern, and the way we guide people to solve climate change and move into the next century.
“Renewable natural gas” is not a large-scale climate solution. It’s a shameless attempt by the fossil fuel industry to convince New Englanders to pay for more polluting pipelines.
A Renewable Energy Certificate is a way to measure and track the production of clean energy. It’s how states and utilities track how much clean energy is being produced by renewable energy sources and which electrical utilities are buying that power.
A Renewable Portfolio Standard is a way for states to ensure their electric utilities – and by extension, the states themselves – are making progress on clean energy. The best policies heavily emphasize clean renewables like wind and solar.
In times of change and upheaval, there is also room for hope and inspiration. While we collectively have much hard work ahead of us, we also have much to commend. Our hope is that this report offers insight into the work that your support makes possible – and inspiration for what we know we can accomplish together.
