This year the Environmental Priorities Coalition's seven priority bills represent the best collective opportunities to restore the sovereignty of Maine's Wabanaki Nations, advance clean energy in Maine, secure the future of Maine's forests, protect endangered and threatened species, strengthen environmental justice for all Maine people, and establish environmental rights for all, for generations.
Bills that were finalized this session.
Status: SUCCESS! The full Legislature passed the bill on the last day of the session, July 26th, and the Governor signed it into law on July 27th.
Climate change is already impacting Maine, and Maine's ongoing dependence on fossil fuels is driving up energy prices for families and businesses. Responsibly developed offshore wind will deliver clean energy, benefit communities, and launch an innovative new industry. If we act now, Maine can set high environmental, equity, and labor standards for the responsible development of this emerging industry.
Factsheets: Foster a Responsible Offshore Wind Industry for Maine
Status: SUCCESS! Governor Mills signed LD 1986 into law on July 11. LD 1347, the bill that would have rolled back solar policy, did not pass.
LD 1986 will reform Maine’s Net Energy Billing program while ensuring Maine continues to make progress on clean energy. It would hold utilities accountable by requiring them to demonstrate the costs and benefits of their projects.
An alternative proposal -- LD 1347 -- would be the most aggressive rollback of solar policy in the country. It would effectively eliminate community solar; retroactively penalize solar customers with no workable carve-outs or exemptions for rooftop, municipal, school, community-owned, or other categories; and severely constrain Maine's ability to access significant new federal funding. There are NO net energy billing cost control mechanisms in LD 1347 that are not also in LD 1986.
Factsheets: Cut Costs, Honor Contracts, and Protect Community Solar
Status: SUCCESS! The Governor signed this bill into law on June 2.
Currently, the majority of proposed development reviewed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) does not consider potential impacts to Maine’s most vulnerable species. This bill will modify the Natural Resource Protection Act (NRPA) to ensure endangered and threatened species habitat is treated as a “Significant Wildlife Habitat” during the permit review process.
Factsheets: Conserve Endangered Threatened Species Habitat
Status: SUCCESS! On June 23, the Governor signed a compromise measure that addresses our concerns.
Until last year, a legal loophole had allowed for waste to be classified as “in-state” once it entered a solid waste processing facility in Maine — no matter where it originated. LD 718 will roll back a bipartisan law passed last year to stop out-of-state waste from being dumped in Maine, ignoring the efforts and impacts to the Penobscot Nation and local residents who worked to get this common-sense environmental measure passed.
Factsheets: Oppose Roll Backs to our Health, Safety, and Environment
Status: SUCCESS! This bill was defeated in the Senate 15-19 and in the House 71-76
Towns and cities should continue to have the right to set their own standards for energy, efficiency, and public health policies based on the needs of their own residents. Instead of protecting choice, LD 894 would prevent Maine towns and cities from getting off the volatile market of dirty fossil fuels and switching to safer and more stable alternatives, blocking community leadership on climate & clean energy goals and undermining home rule.
Factsheets: Oppose prohibitions on local clean energy action
Bills that were carried over to this coming session.
Status: The bill was carried over.
Currently, there is no foundational principle to guide state policymakers in their deliberations to protect the basic essentials for life — clean air, clean water, and healthy ecosystems — for today and future generations. The Pine Tree Amendment requires government at all levels to protect rights to a clean and healthy environment, providing legal standing to those who believe their environmental rights have been violated.
Factsheets: The Pine Tree Amendment
Status: The bill has been carried over into the next legislative session. Stay tuned!
The Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 established a different, more restrictive status for the Wabanaki Nations in Maine than that of all 570 other federally-recognized tribes in the United States. A bipartisan task force recommended changes to restore the Nations’ inherent rights, including rights to regulate hunting, fishing, natural resources, and land use on tribal lands, as allowed by federal law.
Factsheets: Recognize Tribal Sovereignty
Status: After being enacted in the House, this bill moved to the Appropriations Table to await funding. It has been carried over into the next legislative session.
In Maine and across the world, climate change and environmental concerns pose the greatest threats to communities that are already marginalized, overburdened, or underserved. Adopting environmental justice definitions and practices that reflect Maine’s unique situations and communities will ensure that we equitably pursue and achieve our environmental and climate mandates, and that impacted communities are able to fairly participate in the process.
Factsheets: Advance Environmental Justice for All Maine People
Status: After being enacted in the House, the bill was placed on the Appropriations Table with a $5,000 fiscal note. It was carried over to the next legislative session.
Because they are big and largely unfragmented, Maine’s forests have an outsized role to play in mitigating and adapting to climate change and in ensuring continued biodiversity. A Forest Advisory Board would bring together a variety of viewpoints to share information, facilitate public input, look at the forest comprehensively, and advise the Maine Forest Service on policies to keep our forests healthy, intact, and productive.
Factsheets: Create a Forest Advisory Board
Status: Along with all bond bills this session, this bill is on the Appropriations Table awaiting funding, where it will remain until the next session.
In every corner of the state, Maine trails are a critical resource for connecting residents and visitors with the natural world and an essential component of Maine’s $3 billion outdoor recreation economy. A $30 million Maine Trails Bond would provide grants to nonprofits, municipalities, and other divisions of government statewide to support non-motorized, motorized, and multi-use trails.
Factsheets: Invest in Maine Trails Statewide