In the aftermath of Thanksgiving break, dear editor, you may have been rallying your sanity to prepare for the return of classwork — like many of us — but you may have heard too about the Maine Climate Action Plan. It could have been drowned out of your Facebook or Twitter feed by daily election news, but I can assure you that this plan is not receiving the attention it deserves.
Gov. Janet Mills and a team of “more than 250 people,” including climate experts, communities, and industry leaders, have created a climate plan that will bring state emissions down by 45% within the next 10 years — one of the most ambitious climate plans in the nation.
Though we would be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees with this end, sometimes ambition doesn’t stray far from delusion. But that’s the beauty of the Climate Action Plan. It outlines four years worth of goals that are entirely achievable, like “accelerating Maine’s transition to electric vehicles,” investing in environmental infrastructure with funds won from climate lawsuits, funding “innovation support” for climate friendly products made in the state, and increasing the “total acreage of conserved lands in the state to 30%,” to list only a few.
I don’t know about you, dear editor, but I’m tired of cliché attempts by our leadership to calm growing fears about the threats to our climate. Maine’s Climate Action Plan is the opposite of this. We should be proud of our state leaders for leading our nation in the fight towards environmental progress.
