Energy bills first step in emissions plan

AUGUSTA – After a year’s effort, a sweeping plan for reducing the state’s emissions of greenhouse gases in hopes of slowing global climate change has been completed and presented to state legislators.

The plan’s 54 detailed policy recommendations are reflected in at least a dozen bills this session with more sure to come over the next few years.

Educating businesses and homeowners about the immediate financial savings they can reap while doing their part to help solve a global problem will be crucial to the plan’s success, said Tom Welch, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission.

Welch and the 50 or so other authors of the plan met Wednesday to consider how to get their broad slate of recommendations advanced. The group, which includes state policy-makers, environmentalists, and representatives of various industries, has been working on the plan since it was created through legislation more than a year ago.

Much of the early effort will focus on increasing energy efficiency in homes, cars and businesses throughout the state – the easiest means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to Beth Nagusky, director of the Maine Office of Energy Independence and Security.

“These are the most cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gases, and they save people money,” she said Wednesday. “We should be doing these regardless of climate – they just make sense.”

The Baldacci administration already has given its blessing to several proposals, including:

. A requirement, already approved by the state Board of Environmental Protection, that Maine auto dealers sell a minimum quota of gasoline-electric hybrids and efficient gasoline vehicles annually – as is already done in other states that, like Maine, use California emissions standards.

. New requirements that appliances – from traffic lights to household tools – meet regional standards for efficiency.

. Incentives to encourage homeowners to purchase small-scale alternative energy generators, such as solar, wind and geothermal systems.

At least eight additional bills seek to promote the use of “clean” energy generation – particularly hybrid vehicles or vehicles that run on biodiesel fuel, which is made from plant-based oils that can be used alone or (as is more typical) blended with petroleum fuel to power diesel engines.

While “A Climate Action Plan for Maine” speaks to encouraging alternative fuels, it did not specify whether Maine ought to pursue biodiesel or other options such as ethanol, a plant-based alcohol that can be burned in place of gasoline with some modifications to engines. On Wednesday, the plan’s authors decided that the merits of several different fuels deserved debate.

Meanwhile, Department of Environmental Protection efforts to shift much of the state vehicle fleet to hybrids and biodiesel, in hopes of setting an example, will continue, Nagusky said.

Elected officials are also expected to spend much of the 122nd Legislature discussing whether the state’s “energy portfolio” – a list of where the electricity used in Maine originates – ought to be required to include more renewable sources. The current requirement – about a third of Maine’s energy – is easily met by hydroelectric facilities and thus does not promote the development of other types of alternative energy, supporters have said.

A 50 percent renewable portfolio backed by Gov. John Baldacci was defeated during the last legislative session, but a new bill with similar goals is expected this year, Nagusky said.

The climate plan proposes at least 35 percent renewable energy by 2010 and 40 percent by 2020; but it also raises concerns that a market-based system of fees on polluting sources and incentives for cleaner power generation may be a better solution.

Several of the plan’s ideas are controversial- such as adjusting insurance rates based on miles driven or encouraging forestland owners to allow their trees to grow for additional years. However, nearly all of the 54 proposals would be required to meet the plan’s overall goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2010 and an additional 10 percent by 2020. The analysis of Maine emissions conducted by DEP over the course of the planning process estimates that a 34 percent reduction would be required to meet the 2020 target.

So, while just a few measures are likely to see implementation this year, all 54 recommendations will go before legislators or state agencies for approval eventually, said Malcolm Burson of the DEP.

Some ideas lend themselves to a simple legislative proposal. Others, such as better development planning to reduce unnecessary driving, or joining a regional emissions trading scheme that is scheduled to be proposed later this spring, will require many decisions over many years before the state can claim success.

“It’s not a bundle that you can just drop [on legislators] for an up-or-down vote,” he said.

The climate action plan can be downloaded from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection Web site at http://maine.gov/dep/index.shtml