The new school year is well underway, and along with adjusting to hectic schedules, starting new after-school activities and taking adorable back-to-school photos (my wife and I took more than a few of our new kindergartner), we were hit with a reminder of how much climate change is already impacting our lives.
Several schools across Maine, including St. James here in Biddeford, have been forced to close early due to sweltering heat. Others have had to take significant measures to keep cool, including distributing ice packs to students and staff. Growing up, I can’t recall ever seeing this many schools close because of intense heat. Most older buildings were built without central air conditioning because it simply wasn’t a necessity the way it is now.
The impacts of climate change are here, and combating it is the greatest challenge of our time. At the state level, we’re taking action to help ensure that we are creating a future that will be hospitable for our kids.
The administration of Gov. Janet Mills has been implementing an ambitious climate plan called Maine Won’t Wait. Its goals include making Maine carbon neutral by 2045 and reaching 80% clean energy usage by 2030. By the end of last year, we were already at 48%, and we are continuing to make significant progress.
To reach these goals, the Legislature has enacted policies that include expanding heat pump installations, improving building weatherization, increasing the use of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and building an accompanying charging infrastructure. We’ve also taken steps to pair these efforts with building out community resilience for further extreme weather events, including boosting protections against coastal erosion and ensuring the preservation of critical infrastructure such as wastewater treatment.
Our efforts will help grow Maine’s economy. This year, we passed a landmark offshore wind power bill that will enable the state to work with the federal government to leverage funds to be used for clean energy generation and create quality, good-paying jobs, building what could be a new legacy industry for our state. Labor unions and environmental advocates are working together to ensure that these plans help us reach our goals while providing lasting benefits for workers.
Transitioning to a clean energy economy also provides an opportunity to train Maine workers for the jobs of the future. Investing in career and technical education, like Biddeford is doing, will be critical. Building buy-in amongst community members is also important, which is why I am so encouraged by the Maine Climate Corps, an initiative championed recently by President Biden, to prepare young Americans for careers in fields like clean energy. Initiatives like these serve to both fill an economic need and encourage greater civic pride.
Looking ahead, combating climate change also requires action in other, less obvious policy areas like housing. In addition to addressing housing insecurity, homelessness and rising costs, there is another strong reason to build more units and encourage greater density in housing development: Making it more affordable for folks to live near where they work, shop or go to school reduces the amount they need to drive – cutting down on carbon emissions.
Finally, we need to ensure that we are incorporating our climate goals in everything we do, including modernizing our electric grid. This session, we passed a bill directing the state to begin designing a Distributed System Operator (DSO) to enable us to meet our clean energy goals and take advantage of beneficial local electrification. Continuing to think about climate change across all policy areas will be critical.
While I’m proud of all we’ve done to combat climate change here in Maine, I know we still have so much more to do – and I’m looking forward to continuing this work when the new legislative session begins in January.
As always, please feel free to contact me at marc.malon@legislature.maine.gov or call my office at 287-1430 with any concerns you have on this or any issue.
Rep. Marc Malon is serving his first term in the Maine House, representing a portion of Biddeford. He serves as a member of the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee and the Labor and Housing Committee.
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