Maine Rep. Melanie Sachs of Freeport discusses her plan to modernize Maine’s decades-old comprehensive planning process to focus on strategies for sustainable development and strategic land protection on Jan. 14, 2025. (Photo by AnnMarie Hilton/ Maine Morning Star)
A coalition of 40 conservation, climate and public health organizations unveiled its policy priorities for the new legislative session, which they said would help the state address the climate crisis, cultivate healthy communities and protect land, water and wildlife.
The Environmental Priorities Coalition highlighted nine priority areas along with corresponding legislation or proposals to achieve those goals. Several of the bill sponsors spoke at the State House on Tuesday to a room packed with fellow lawmakers and lobbyists.
Rep. Aaron Dana, the representative from the Passamaquoddy Tribe, spoke of how the tribes are seen as the original stewards of what we now call Maine, but cautioned that they can’t be solely responsible for caring for the land and natural resources.
Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Cumberland) is again proposing legislation to restore tribal sovereignty for the four Wabanaki Nations, which among other things would grant the tribes greater ability to regulate natural resources and land use on tribal land.
Dana shared the Passamaquoddy belief that the land and water do not belong to the people living today. Instead, “it belongs to the seven generations after us, so we only take what we need and make sure that it is always clean and accessible for our children’s children’s children, and so on.”
In addition to longstanding debates like tribal sovereignty and overhauling comprehensive planning laws, the coalition’s priorities also include those that have taken on more urgency after recent events, like the toxic chemical spill in Brunswick last Augusta.
Protecting against pollution
It’s been a year since Maine was ravaged by a series of winter storms that brought widespread flooding and an estimated $90 million in infrastructure damage. Scientists have said that climate change has made severe weather events more intense.
Last session, lawmakers included $60 million for storm relief in the state’s supplemental budget, but the environmental coalition said Sen. Stacy Brenner (D-Cumberland) is leading an effort to make fossil fuel corporations, whose emissions have been linked to the changing climate, pay their share to fix the damage.
Shifting that cost from taxpayers to fossil fuel companies could be done by requiring the state to identify the largest emitters responsible for fossil fuel-related pollution and demand compensation proportionate to their share of emissions, the coalition explained. That money could finance projects to protect Maine people and businesses from future devastation.
In addition to the physical destruction, the storms raised concerns about stormwater pollution from the intense flooding, especially in coastal waters like Casco Bay. Stormwater is the rain or melted snow that runs off of streets or lawns and eventually flows into streams and rivers. That water can carry pollutants making waterways unhealthy for fishing, recreation and aquatic life.
As such, the coalition wants to protect waterways in Maine from stormwater pollution by building on the work of the existing Stormwater Advisory Group. That desire is shared by Rep. Art Bell (D-Yarmouth), who from his island home said he can see the Royal River run brown after large rainfalls due to runoff. He’s proposing a legislative study that would identify actionable measures to mitigate and eliminate stormwater pollution.
The coalition is also focused on protecting natural resources from other environmental disasters like toxic chemical spills.
This summer, a fire suppression system in a hangar at the Brunswick Executive Airport spilled approximately 1,600 gallons of foam containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS. The August spill was one of at least three that have occurred since the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority took over the former military base.
Given the environmental and public health risks posed by PFAS, the coalition wants to prevent similar spills from happening in the future. PFAS have been linked to serious long-term health problems including cancer, weakened immune systems, developmental issues, and more.
In the days that followed the Aug. 19 spill, Rep. Dan Ankeles (D-Brunswick) said the state needs to take proactive measures to prevent future spills, especially given how difficult it is to clean up PFAS — colloquially known as “forever chemicals.” Ankeles put forth a package of proposed legislation seeking to remove and regulate the chemical-laden firefighting foam.
“Rather than just put in legislation figuring out ‘What can I do to rescue my own district from this crisis?’ — and I did do that — it was important to me to make sure we have something in place statewide to make sure that this can’t happen anywhere else,” Ankeles said at the meeting Tuesday.
Undoing a past wrong and planning for the future
The Wabanaki Nations have a more restrictive status than other federally-recognized tribes because of a 1980 law the state has interpreted to deny them the right to self-govern like other tribes across the country.
There have been multiple unsuccessful efforts in recent years to restore self-determination for the Wabanaki people, but the environmental coalition is throwing its support behind the continued push from Talbot Ross because it could improve economic opportunities and foster stewardship of the land.
While the coalition wants to restore the rights that were taken away by past law, it also wants to keep an eye on the future by factoring climate into planning.
Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Maine, with most of it coming from personal vehicles. In an effort to reduce that source of pollution, the environmental coalition wants to see investments in public transportation and safer streets for pedestrians.
It’s also backing another bill from Brenner that seeks to align transportation planning with climate goals by requiring the state to consider the climate impact of new projects.
Likewise, the coalition wants to extend that sort of climate-minded planning to new infrastructure, public services and housing. To do that, they are supporting the continued effort from Rep. Melanie Sachs (D-Freeport) to modernize Maine’s decades-old comprehensive planning process to focus on strategies for sustainable development and strategic land protection.
The bill from Sachs is a revision of a proposal she introduced last session that passed in both chambers with bipartisan support, but died at the end of the session after being sent to the governor.
Improved comprehensive planning also corresponds with the coalition’s desire to see more land conservation, calling it “the most basic step we can take to fight climate change.” That’s why the coalition is prioritizing a proposal from Sen. Russell Black (R-Franklin) to find long-term, reliable funding for the Land for Maine’s Future program, which keeps forests, farmlands and working waterfronts open for natural and recreational use.
Utilities
With about 100,000 Maine households struggling to pay their energy bills from electricity rates twice the national average, the coalition wants to protect Mainers from increasing costs and utility shutoffs.
They are backing a proposal from Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cumberland) to expand protections for the elderly, infants and people with chronic medical conditions from utility disconnections. It would also prevent competitive electricity providers from tricking low-income customers into higher rates, which was the focus of a recent report from the Maine Office of the Public Advocate.
The environmental coalition argues that Maine is at an inflection point where it must reduce energy costs while making the electric grid cleaner and more resilient.
With that, they want to ensure Maine meets the goal of 100% clean electricity by 2040. Not only will renewable energy sources benefit the environment, but the coalition argues it could save ratepayers money and create jobs.
Sen. Mark Lawrence (D-York) is sponsoring a bill that would enshrine that goal into law.
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