While members of Maine's congressional delegation call for federal measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Gov. John Baldacci on Thursday will sign a state law - the first in the nation - to set specific goals and a timeline to reduce carbon dioxide pollution.
Although Maine is the first state to have a law on the issue, other states have addressed carbon dioxide emissions.
In August 2001, then-Gov. Angus King signed an agreement with other New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers that set similar goals for the region.
MAINE CLIMATE CHANGE ACT
An Act To Provide Leadership in Addressing the Threat of Climate Change requires the state to:
Create a "climate change action plan" by July 2004 to reduce carbon dioxide levels to 1990 levels by 2010, to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and eventually by as much as 80 percent.
Show state leadership by inventorying and reducing carbon dioxide emissions from state-funded programs and facilities.
Spur at least 50 partnerships with businesses and nonprofit organizations.
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Since then, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have developed action plans, and Vermont has issued an executive order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
None, however, has turned their plans into law.
Maine's law will require the state to develop a "climate change action plan."
The state Department of Environmental Protection will work with state agencies, individuals, businesses and others to come up with ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, to 10 percent below those levels by 2020 and, eventually, by as much as 80 percent.
The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Ted Koffman, a Democrat from Bar Harbor, said it's important that the DEP will work with others to develop ways to meet the goals.
"We're not mandating a command-and-control approach as to how we're going to get these emissions down," he said. "It could be that in certain cases a regulatory approach would be the most effective and appropriate way of achieving some piece of our overall goal. In other cases, it may be education or technical assistance that is needed."
State Rep. Robert Daigle, a Republican from Arundel and an environmental consultant, said he is a bit skeptical about the law.
As long as the emissions reductions are cost-effective, he said, he approves of the goals. Otherwise, he said, he'll have serious problems.
"When the plan gets reviewed before the (legislative) committee, I will pursue . . . what are your cost-effective decisions here," he said. "The state doesn't have all the money it wants, so every decision made to pursue something that's not cost-effective is taking money away from a social program, a bridge that needs repair or something else that's compelling."
Adam Markham, the executive director of Clean Air Cool Planet, a New Hampshire environmental organization, said, "It's great that Maine has this law . . . The critical issue is to turn that law into action, because it's going to require a comprehensive stakeholder process to produce this action plan, and then they'll need to have some funds to implement it . . . But the first step has certainly been taken."
Jim Marston, who coordinates state climate initiatives for Environmental Defense, a New York-based environmental organization, said that the law is important for two reasons.
"No. 1," he said, "it's legislation. It's valuable there. The elected legislative body has made it policy of the state. And No. 2, there are numerical goals with a timetable."
He said that, especially now, with Washington not addressing greenhouse gases, it is important for states to weigh in.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency draft report does not discuss the impact of climate change and global warming, which is partially caused by human behavior.
All four members of Maine's congressional delegation support national measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Republican, said in a written statement Tuesday that she applauds the state for passing the law.
"The signing of this law should provide impetus for the Senate to consider the Climate Stewardship Act, legislation I co-sponsored to establish a cap-and-trade system to reduce (carbon dioxide) emissions," she said.
Sen. Susan Collins, also a Republican, said in a written statement that "climate change is a serious and growing threat. The most important thing we can do to combat global warming is to take concrete steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That is why I recently joined Senators (Jim) Jeffords and (Joseph) Lieberman to introduce the Clean Power Act."
Snowe also supports that law.
That bill would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants to 1990 levels by 2009.
U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat who represents Maine's 1st Congressional District, has consistently pressed for reduction in greenhouse emissions.
Brownie Carson, executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said that greenhouse gases are like a "blanket that's going to continue to warm the atmosphere and create more severe storm cycles, push temperatures up so that tropical and temperate diseases will migrate north."
He said critics of the law who worry that it will add expensive burdens to businesses are mistaken.
"Controlling greenhouse gas emissions and becoming a more energy-efficient economy are really two sides of the same coin in many respects," he said. "Energy efficiency really works."
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
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