It’s clear to everyone who lives in our beautiful state that we are not immune to the impacts of climate change and are already feeling the intense impacts with increased wildfire smoke, extreme hot and cold temperatures, and sea level rise. I have lived in Maine for 25 years and have seen progressively dire consequences of the climate crisis hitting our communities. It is clear that if we want to mitigate these impacts on our communities we need to use every tool at our disposal to move toward a zero-emissions future.
As a scientist, I support positive, common-sense policies that help us reach our climate goals. In December 2021, the Governor’s Energy Office and Office of Policy Innovation and the Future released the Clean Transportation Roadmap, outlining the avenues Maine has available to clean up the transportation sector in order to reach the state’s goal of reducing emissions by 45% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. These goals reflect the urgency of our climate crisis.
Transportation is the most polluting sector in Maine and the Clean Transportation Roadmap lays out clear recommendations to cut emissions and meet our climate goals. This year the Maine Department of Environmental Protection began the rulemaking process on two of the roadmap’s recommended clean vehicle rules: Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) and Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II). The ACC II sets increasing sales targets for electric vehicles through 2032 and the ACT sets electric sales targets for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in Maine with flexible timelines based on the class of vehicle to accommodate an efficient transition to electric trucks and buses.
Neither of these regulations forces anyone to buy an EV, but rather ensures that the market provides an increasing range of options for sales in the state – a model that has proven to work for decades. At the DEP board’s October meeting, board members expressed their support for moving forward with the ACC II but decided they would not move forward with ACT.
It was clear to state officials in 2021 that we needed both of these rules to meet our climate goals. Adopting ACC II will be a key step for Maine to start to cut dangerous tailpipe pollution, but medium- and heavy-duty vehicles have an outsized impact on our air quality and climate. Diesel pollution contributes to asthma, lung disease, cancer, even premature death. We know that across the country exposure to diesel soot pollution from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles disproportionately affect lower-income and communities of color.
While the EPA has proposed new standards to address greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, the federal proposal does not go far enough to help Maine meet its stated climate goals, making ACT the best path forward for the state.
According to the American Lung Association, transitioning to clean trucks and clean power generation from 2020-2050 is expected to generate more than $600 million in health benefits, avoid 54 deaths, 785 avoided asthma attacks and avoid over 4,000 lost work days. Maine needs rules for our state that address the urgency of our climate crisis, not rely on a standard that is not even completed. We know the ACT saves lives and generates tremendous health and economic benefits, we cannot continue to delay years of benefits for Mainers.
Maine has long been a climate leader in the region, setting a strong example for New England and the rest of the country, but now, without adopting the ACT, our state is being surpassed by Vermont, Virginia, New Jersey and Maryland who have already adopted the life-saving rule. The national rule has not been finalized yet, will be weaker than ACT, and, by not adopting the strongest possible program now while we have the chance, we risk losing valuable years of life-saving benefits.
More delays in adoption of ACT will shut Mainers out of years of valuable economic and health benefits.
We have known for years that Maine needs clean cars and trucks to cut air and climate pollution. To suggest that this rule is not what Maine needs is harmful and untrue. We must take a comprehensive approach to cleaning up all sectors, and we have the tools in our toolbox to do so.
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