This weather isn’t normal.

My yard shouldn’t be having a mud season in January. Shacks that stood on Fisherman’s Point in South Portland for 100 years shouldn’t be washing into the sea. A lack of snow isn’t all that unusual for a winter. But torrential rain? Come on now. I’m only 31, and even I can see that winters aren’t like they used to be when I was a kid.

We can no longer think of “climate change” as a distant danger to us, like when the sun runs out of hydrogen and dies in 2 billion years. It’s happening now. I can only imagine what this looks like to folks who have decades more memories to draw on. Which is why it’s interesting that older generations are less concerned about actually doing anything about the effects of climate change. According to Pew Research, 38% of baby boomers favor phasing out new gas-powered vehicles – while 57% of millennials (and 56% of Gen Z) say the same. And that strikes me as a little nutty. We have the technology to get rid of solely gas-powered cars. Electric vehicle batteries improve year over year, and hybrids are well established. Sure, we need the government and business to put their heads together to make it happen; obviously, car manufacturers and dealers aren’t going to do it on their own.

In the case of electric vehicles, I’m actually in favor of the Legislature being in charge of authorizing and enforcing car standards that meet the federal Clean Air Act. Roughly 50% of Maine’s carbon dioxide emissions come from “transportation.” We’ve got to figure out ways to reduce that. I absolutely want more electric vehicles on the road, and we need more infrastructure to make that happen.

I want Republicans to work with Democrats to make that happen – many of the Republican elected officials represent more rural districts, and the Legislature needs their experience and expertise in order to be able to increase the amount of electric vehicles on our roads. I’m concerned that the Maine GOP isn’t interested in helping. I’m worried that rather than taking the issue of emission elimination seriously and balancing the needs of our economy and the needs of the environment, they’ll just yell and holler about it to win votes on the campaign trail in November, probably by scaring people. It’s not the worst strategy in the oldest state in the union.

Rep. Reagan Paul of Winterport described the question of whether the Board of Environmental Protection or the Legislature should have the authority to adopt and enforce the federal Clean Air Act standards as “a board of unelected bureaucrats appointed by Gov. Mills attempting to ram their radical climate agenda down the throats of Maine citizens.”

That sort of phrasing wouldn’t be used by a serious person concerned about climate change. It would be used by someone who wants to scare the crud out of their own constituents. Also, getting more electric vehicles on the road instead of gas-powered vehicles is probably one of the least radical climate agendas I’ve ever heard of. You can’t just complain about someone else’s solution to a problem if you aren’t willing to offer one of your own.

Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart said Mainers should “ask tough questions” about “whether they think it’s appropriate for state government to tell you what you can drive for a vehicle.” The state government literally already tells you what you can and can’t drive for a vehicle. I can’t drive a tank on I-95. Tractor-trailers require a special license and training to legally drive. Cars that don’t pass safety inspections can’t be driven on our roads – you can be fined or have your license suspended.

You might say those restrictions are about safety. To that I’d say, people have died in these freak storms. They will continue to die. Climate change is going to result in famine, harsher weather and storms, social upheaval, and more.

Interestingly, both Paul and Stewart are younger than me. They can’t even ignore climate change the way I think a lot of older folks ignore it, assuming that they’ll be gone soon enough that it won’t affect them. They’re just being irresponsible.

Personally, I’d like to see a push for more hybrid vehicles. They’re greener and more environmentally friendly than traditional internal combustion engines, but with the security of having a gas tank as backup – perfect for rural Maine. Just this afternoon, I drove my friend’s 2007 Toyota Prius on untreated roads through a snowstorm, and that baby handled it like a champ. Sure, it didn’t make a big vroom-vroom noise upon starting up, but somehow I managed to drive it without feeling oppressed by big government. I think the comfort of 42-45 miles per gallon (with gas in my town at $3.19 per gallon) had something to do with it. It doesn’t seem scary at all.

Victoria Hugo-Vidal is a Maine millennial. She can be contacted at:
themainemillennial@gmail.com
Twitter: @mainemillennial

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