“Maine’s approach will not blindly follow the lead of any other state,” read a statement from the governor’s office earlier this year on the subject of electric vehicles. 

Gov. Mills’ office would not, it said, be taking a leaf out of the books of states like California, which plans to phase out and ultimately ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. 

With concern about climate change at a fever pitch, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to expect a chorus of disappointed voices in response to the decision not to enforce a mandate of any kind. No such chorus came.

Yes, transportation is by far the largest source of emissions in our state. Right now, however, electric vehicles are as expensive as they are scarce. That reality has tempered even advocates’ expectations. 

“I think Maine is on the right path for our population at the moment,” Ania Wright, the legislative and political strategist at Sierra Club Maine, told the Press Herald.

In lieu of a new top-down, statewide strategy, municipalities across Maine are coming up with tailor-made initiatives to promote and incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles and other equipment. The city of South Portland just joined Auburn, Bangor and Presque Isle, to name a few, in introducing an electric technology rebate program. 

The South Portland program has been structured to target middle-income earners, offering up to $2,000 per qualifying household for electric vehicles, heat pumps, home insulation and weatherization projects, yard equipment and e-bikes. Residents with household incomes up to 100 percent of the area median income (from $78,200 for a single person to $111,700 for a family of four) qualify.

It is heartening to see cities like South Portland devise forms of assistance with its residents’ means in mind. Such a targeted approach is also somewhat refreshing – many rebate programs seem to lose sight of the fact that, even with the help, low-income households cannot stretch to invest in big-ticket upgrades.

Which brings us to the state rebate for used EVs.

Writing in the Press Herald last month, Peter Fromuth, a member of the Yarmouth Committee on Energy Efficiency and Sustainability, pointed out that there is other inspiration to be taken from California at the state level; Maine’s state rebate for a used electric vehicle kicks in only at an income level at which a used EV is likely be unaffordable. Our means threshold for used EV rebates is far lower than other states. 

The rebate, currently capped at $2,500, is also half of Vermont, Oregon and California.

Multimillion-dollar expansion of the state’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure will be for nothing if there aren’t cars to be charged. The Mills administration has said it plans to add more than 200,000 electric vehicles to our roads by 2030. It’s an ambitious target – right now, there are just 7,000 – that will require very specific and very accessible incentives (and even then, in light of chronic supply chain trouble, a bit of luck).

Maine need not “blindly follow” the example set by any of these states, and it should not waver on the question of any form of mandate or ban – but it owes it to residents to take a good hard look at the economics behind the terms and conditions, and take into account the challenging reality of the market – made only more challenging in inflationary times.