U.S. experienced staggering growth in solar and wind power over the last decade / by Syris Valentine

_^energy.gov

When you live far from the sprawling fields befitting utility-scale solar and wind farms, it’s easy to feel like clean energy isn’t coming online fast enough. But renewables have grown at a staggering rate since 2014 and now account for 22 percent of the nation’s electricity. Solar alone has grown an impressive eightfold in 10 years.

The sun and the wind have been the country’s fastest growing sources of energy over the past decade, according to a report released by the nonprofit Climate Central on Wednesday. Meanwhile, coal power has declined sharply, and the use of methane to generate electricity has all but leveled off. With the Inflation Reduction Act poised to kick that growth curve higher with expanded tax credits for manufacturing and installing photovoltaic panels and wind turbines, the most optimistic projections suggest that the country is getting ever closer to achieving its 2030 and 2035 clean energy goals.

“I think the rate at which renewables have been able to grow is just something that most people don’t recognize,” said Amanda Levin, director of policy analysis at the Natural Resources Defense Council, who was not involved in preparing the report.

In the decade analyzed by Climate Central, solar went from generating less than half a percent of the nation’s electricity to producing nearly 4 percent. In that same period, wind grew from 4 percent to roughly 10. Once hydropower, geothermal, and biomass are accounted for, nearly a quarter of the nation’s grid was powered by renewable electricity in 2023, with the share only expected to rise thanks to the continued surge in solar.

The vast majority of the nation’s solar capacity comes from utility-scale installations with at least one megawatt of capacity (enough to power over a hundred homes, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association). But panels installed on rooftops, parking lots, and other comparatively small sites contributed a combined 48,000 megawatts across the country.

“One thing that surprised a lot of different people who’ve read the report in our office was the strength of small-scale solar,” said Jen Brady, the lead analyst on the Climate Central report.

With residential and other small arrays accounting for 34 percent of the nation’s available capacity, “it lets you know that maybe you could do something in your community, in your home that can help contribute to it,” Brady said.

Still, the buildout of utility-scale solar farms continues to set the pace for how rapidly renewable energy can feed the country’s grid. According to Sam Ricketts, a clean energy consultant and former climate policy advisor to Washington Governor Jay Inslee, solar’s growth was driven by production and investment tax credits that President Barack Obama extended in 2015 and President Joe Biden expanded through the Inflation Reduction Act or IRA. Beyond these federal incentives that allow energy developers to claim tax credits equivalent to 30 percent of the installation cost of renewables, state policies that proactively drive clean energy or promote a competitive market in which the dwindling price of renewables allows them to outshine fossil fuels have been critical to ratcheting up growth. Yet, even with the accelerating expansion seen in the last decade, more investments and incentives are needed.

“As rapid as that growth has been, how do we make it all go that much faster?” Ricketts asked. “Because we need to be building renewables and electricity at about three times the speed that we have been over the last few years.”

Achieving that rate of buildout is critical for achieving two of President Biden’s climate goals: cutting emissions economy-wide by at least half by 2030 and achieving 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035.

To realize those goals, the nation must reach 80 percent clean energy by 2030. “I dare say it’s even more important, for the time being than 100 percent clean by 2035,” Ricketts said. Hitting that benchmark, he said, will require more federal and state policy pushes. Levin agrees.

“The IRA does a lot,” she said, “but it is not likely to do everything.”

The IRA has the ability to push renewable energy from roughly 40 percent of the nation’s energy mix, when nuclear is included, to more than 60 percent — or, in the most optimistic of scenarios, 77 percent.

But for the growth in capacity to be integrated into the system and utilized, the grid needs to be able to transmit electrons from far-off solar fields and wind farms to the places where they’re needed. While the transmission conversation most often revolves around building new lines and transmission towers, Levin notes that recent technological advances have made it possible to address half of these transmission needs simply by stringing new, advanced power lines on existing infrastructure that can handle bigger loads with fewer losses, in a process called “reconductoring.”

The other challenge that comes with building out clean energy is learning how to handle the way wind speeds and sunshine fluctuate. While this is often levied as an argument against their reliability, Levin points out that a host of solutions exist — from expanding battery storage to adjusting loads when demand spikes — to ensure they’re reliable. The challenge is adopting them.

“Utilities are risk averse,” she said, “and their commissions can also be risk averse. And so it’s getting them to be comfortable with thinking about the way that they provide electricity and the way that they manage their system a little differently.”

This article was reposted from Grist.org.

_{Syris Valentine is an essayist, journalist, and fiction writer focused on illuminating solutions in a time of crisis. Through freelance reporting and independent writing for Just Progress, their blog and newsletter, Syris explores concurrent crises of ecology and economy we’re living through. They use their writing as a means to share the questions (and occasional answers) they encounter through their exploration.}

In a first for U.S., enhanced geothermal plant is up and running / by Maria Gallucci

_{^{A Fervo geothermal site under construction. | Ellen Schmidt/AP}}

_{Reposted from the People’s World}

A next-generation geothermal plant backed by Google has started sending carbon-free electricity to the grid in Nevada, where the tech company operates some of its massive data centers.

On Tuesday, Google and geothermal developer Fervo Energy said that electrons began flowing from the first-of-a-kind facility earlier this month. The 3.5-megawatt project, called Project Red, is now supplying power directly to the Las Vegas–based utility NV Energy.

The announcement comes more than two years after Google and Fervo signed a corporate agreement to develop the “enhanced geothermal” plant. Unlike conventional geothermal plants, which tap into heat found close to the earth’s surface, Houston-based Fervo uses advanced drilling techniques to access resources that are deeper or trickier to reach than hot springs or geysers.

The pilot project’s completion is a meaningful step in the growing global effort to harness the Earth’s heat.

In the United States, geothermal energy supplies only about 3,700 megawatts (3.7 gigawatts) of electricity, or 0.4 percent of total U.S. electricity generation last year. But according to the U.S. Department of Energy, geothermal could provide potentially 90 gigawatts of firm and flexible power to America’s grid by 2050 — assuming that enhanced systems like Fervo’s catch on as a widespread renewable energy option.

Fervo’s project has a relatively small capacity: enough to power roughly 2,600 U.S. homes at once. Still, that’s more electricity than any of the world’s 40-some enhanced geothermal systems have previously achieved, according to the company.

Google said it inked the agreement in May 2021 as part of a larger strategy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. The prior year, the search-engine giant set a target of operating all of its power-hungry data centers and office campuses worldwide on “24/7 carbon-free energy” by 2030, a goal that requires not just purchasing renewable power but also accelerating the development of innovative energy technologies.

“When we began our partnership with Fervo, we knew that a first-of-a-kind project like this would require a wide range of technical and operational innovations,” Michael Terrell, Google’s senior director of energy and climate, wrote in a November 28 blog post.

“The result is a geothermal plant that can produce round-the-clock [carbon-free energy] using less land than other clean energy sources,” he said, adding that Google “worked closely with Fervo to overcome obstacles and prove that this technology can work.”

Google declined to share financial details about its agreement with Fervo or the cost of the electricity that Project Red is producing.

Drilling deep for clean energy

Geothermal resources are available virtually everywhere underground, representing a potentially vast supply of clean electricity and industrial heat. Yet most of those resources are too deep or technically complicated to reach cost-effectively using traditional methods.

Fervo, which has raised more than $180 million since 2017, is among dozens of companies in the U.S. and worldwide that are striving to develop easier and cheaper ways of unleashing this geothermal potential.

The startup uses horizontal drilling techniques and fiber-optic sensing tools gleaned from the oil and gas industry. Technicians create fractures in hard, impermeable rocks found far below the Earth’s surface, then pump the fractures full of water and working fluids. The super-hot rocks heat those liquids, eventually producing steam that drives electric turbines. The idea is to create geothermal reservoirs in places where naturally occurring resources aren’t available.

In recent years, enhanced geothermal projects in a handful of other countries were shut down after triggering earthquakes and rattling surrounding cities. Since then, companies have stepped up efforts to monitor and mitigate induced seismicity. Fervo said it had adopted a protocol developed by DOE to avoid causing seismic events at its project sites.

The startup first began drilling in Humboldt County, Nevada in early 2022. Project Red was initially anticipated to be a 5-megawatt facility that would come online last year.

At the geothermal site, two wells reach 7,700 feet deep and then connect with horizontal conduits stretching some 3,250 feet long. Fervo’s team flows fluid into the project’s artificial reservoir, where the liquid can reach temperatures of up to 376 degrees Fahrenheit. In July, Fervo announced that it successfully completed a full-scale well test in Nevada that confirmed the commercial viability of its next-generation technology.

Roughly four months later, its first power plant is officially up and running.

“We did what we set out to do,” Sarah Jewett, Fervo’s vice president of strategy, said in an email to Canary Media.

Through the agreement with Google, “We proved our drilling technology, established Project Red as the most produced enhanced geothermal system in history, and delivered carbon-free electrons to the grid at a time when competing clean, firm energy developers have struggled to execute their projects,” she said.

To boost America’s geothermal capacity, the DOE has set a goal of slashing the cost of power from enhanced geothermal systems to $45 per megawatt-hour by 2035 — a 90 percent drop from today’s prices. Fervo currently produces power at a “significantly” higher cost than the DOE’s target, Tim Latimer, the company’s CEO, told Utility Dive in July. Still, he said the startup remains on track to hit $45 per MWh in the coming years as it scales its technology.

On that point, Fervo is already getting started on a 400-megawatt geothermal power plant in Beaver County, Utah, called Cape Station. This summer, Fervo began drilling the first of what will become 100 geothermal wells for the project, which is expected to start delivering 24/7 electricity to the grid in 2026 and reach full-scale production in 2028, Jewett said.

Google, for its part, said it will continue working with Fervo and other companies to accelerate the commercialization of advanced clean energy technologies. In September, the tech giant formed a partnership with Project InnerSpace, a nonprofit that aims to expand the use of geothermal energy worldwide. Google said it will lend its data and software capabilities to help develop a tool for mapping and assessing global geothermal resources.

“For geothermal to grow over the coming decades, we need big players with global scale and breakthrough technological solutions focused on this massive clean energy resource beneath us,” Jamie Beard, executive director of Project InnerSpace, said in an earlier statement about the Google partnership.

This article was reposted from Grist.org, originally via Canary Media.

_{We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!}

_{Maria Gallucci is a clean energy reporter at Canary Media, where she covers hard-to-decarbonize sectors and efforts to make the energy transition more affordable and equitable.}

Maine AFL-CIO Applauds Passage of Historic Ports & Offshore Wind Jobs & Climate Legislation with Strong Labor Standards / by Andy O’Brien

_{Originally posted in} _{Maine AFL-CIO Weekly Update}

This week Governor Mills signed into law LD 1895, historic offshore wind jobs legislation that will jumpstart a new offshore wind energy industry in the state with strong labor, climate, and equity standards.

The bill (LD 1895), sponsored by Sen. Mark Lawrence (D-York), was passed after being negotiated by legislators, the Mills Administration, organized labor, a key fisheries group, and environmental organizations.

The bill will responsibly develop offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine and encourage new deep-water port construction while maintaining strong standards to ensure good-paying jobs for Maine workers, protections for wildlife, avoidance of important fishing grounds, broad stakeholder engagement, and inclusive community benefits.

“This bill is a homerun for Maine workers and our clean energy future. It ensures that we will create thousands of good union jobs with great benefits and apprenticeship training opportunities. It protects our fisheries and puts Maine on a path to clean energy independence,” said Matt Schlobohm, Executive Director of the Maine AFL-CIO.

“This is historic. We have a long history in Maine – in the paper, shipbuilding, textile, shoes, solar and many others sectors – of workers having to scrap, crawl and fight for decades to turn jobs in new industries into good jobs where workers have dignity and respect. With this legislation and other efforts we are making these will be good union jobs from the start,” Schlobohm continued.

“With a bang of the gavel, the legislature sent one simple but powerful message to working Mainers; and that was: ‘You matter and we need you’,” said Jason J. Shedlock, president of the Maine State Building and Construction Trades Council and a principal officer for the Maine Labor Climate Council.

“We also know there’s little time to celebrate, as building this industry will take a sustained, all-hands-on-deck approach. And much like virtually every major construction project in Maine’s history, a vast majority of those hands will have one thing in common: when they reach into their back pockets, they’ll find a union card that doubles as their passport to a middle-class career with dignity.”

Virginia Olsen, Organizer & Business Representative with the Maine Lobstering Union (IAM Local 207) added, “This legislation brought together a broad coalition to send a clear message that any offshore wind development in Maine must protect our fishing grounds. We are worried about offshore wind. Our coastal communities, especially downeast, rely on fishing revenue to keep our towns vital and year-round. This legislation helps incentivize that any development be outside our fishing area and protect our fishing grounds. It puts us in a stronger place to protect our industry. We will continue to work with BOEM to ensure that any commercial development happens outside of Lobster Management Area 1.”

The groundbreaking new climate jobs law:

Sets Maine on track to procure three gigawatts of offshore wind power – enough to power 900,000 homes with clean energy – in the Gulf of Maine by 2040.
Requires that any offshore wind project and port must be built under industry-leading strong labor standards, including Project Labor Agreements and other benchmarks that prohibit temporary workers and independent contractors, and mandate that workers are paid unions’ collectively bargained total package rate with comparable health and retirement benefits, safety training, and participation in registered apprenticeship programs. These standards apply to both the construction of a port in Maine and offshore wind work.
Encourages the use of project labor agreements in the awarding of offshore wind procurement bids.
Incentivizes responsibly developed wind projects that protect wildlife and avoid Lobster Management Area 1, Maine’s key fishing grounds.
Sets strong and comprehensive labor and workforce development standards for good-paying jobs and ensure inclusive benefits for Maine’s most vulnerable communities. 
Supports the creation of a world-class, Maine-built offshore wind port that will bring in billions of dollars in economic development.
Helps meet Maine’s bipartisan emissions reduction targets and put the state on a path to meeting the proposed goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2040.

Historic Legislation Puts Maine on Road to Clean Energy Goals

Maine has positioned itself as a national leader on climate with a comprehensive statewide Climate Action Plan, bipartisan emissions reduction targets, and strong clean energy policies that have driven record growth in heat pump and solar adoption. A proposed goal of 100% renewable energy by 2040 would continue this progress.

This comprehensive bill reflects many of the recommendations of the Maine Offshore Wind Roadmap, developed after a multi-year process by the Governor’s Energy Office that engaged a wide variety of stakeholders – including representatives from coastal communities, fisheries, business, conservation, clean energy, organized labor, and state government.

_{Andy O’Brien is a writer and the communications director of the Maine AFL-CIO.}

Senate Republicans block proposed heating relief, housing assistance plan / by Evan Popp

_{^{Photo of chamber voting board for LD1 | Republicans block emergency winter energy relief plan}}

_{Originally published in the Maine Beacon on December 8, 2022}

Senate Republicans on Wednesday rejected Gov. Janet Mills’ plan to provide immediate aid to Mainers through direct checks, other relief for home heating and investments in housing assistance, dealing a blow to efforts to get funds to people before the winter.

Mills announced the details of the $474 million spending package late Tuesday, and lawmakers were poised to take swift action on the first day of the new legislative session, with the governor pushing for passage of the plan with a two-thirds majority that would allow funds to get to Mainers more quickly.

The House overwhelmingly passed the measure, but the bill failed to reach the two-thirds threshold in the Senate. The vote in the Senate was 21-8 in favor of the measure, with 6 senators excused from voting. All Democrats voting in the Senate supported the plan, while all Republicans voting rejected it. In addition, five of the six excused senators were Republicans, who as a party made high energy prices a centerpiece of their failed campaign to win back control of the Blaine House and the Maine House and Senate in the November election.

Republicans criticized the bill for not going through a public hearing, the normal path a bill takes before being considered by the full legislature, arguing that lawmakers shouldn’t approve hundreds in millions in spending without such a process. A Republican-led motion to refer the bill to a committee for a public hearing also failed Wednesday.

However, Mills pushed back against the GOP’s argument in a statement released Wednesday night, reiterating the seriousness of the issues facing Mainers as winter approaches, with heating costs high and a dire housing crisis facing the state. She also noted that the proposal had been negotiated beforehand with both Democrats and Republicans.

“The plan I proposed incorporates the feedback of Republican and Democratic leadership in the Legislature. It builds on the nation-leading inflation relief measure we delivered earlier this year — and it is the fastest, most direct way to get help to Maine people as we work to bring down energy costs in the long-term. Tonight, a minority of the minority choose to reject this help for Maine people,” Mills said, calling for Republicans to approve the plan.

Mills’ proposal, which would have been partially paid for using a forecasted $283 million budget surplus, was headlined by checks of $450 to a projected 880,000 Mainers, meant to help people pay for household heating. The checks were income-targeted, but a wide swath of Mainers, including those in upper-income brackets, would have received the money. Those eligible included single filers making less than $100,000, heads of household making less than $150,000 and couples filing jointly making less than $200,000. The governor’s office said in a news release that the plan would have provided an estimated $900 for the average Mainer, with funds arriving by mid-January.

Along with the direct checks — a similar proposal to the $850 checks Mainers received earlier this year — Mills’ plan included other spending such as $40 million for the Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps homeowners and renters pay for heating costs. In addition, the measure contained $10 million for the Maine Community Action Partnerships to help that group deliver emergency fuel for people who need it.

Separate from the spending bill, Mills also took executive action to help distribute heating aid to older, low-income Mainers, announcing that the state will provide a payment of $500 to about 13,000 households.

Also in the spending plan proposed to the legislature was $21 million meant to aid the Emergency Housing Relief Fund formed by Mills and the legislature earlier this year, which works to prevent people from experiencing homelessness.

Mixed reaction to plan from progressive lawmakers

While Democrats ultimately backed the plan before it was sunk by Republicans, some progressive lawmakers said the $450 checks could have been better targeted. They argued that those on the upper end of the income threshold — individuals making nearly $100,000 and couples making nearly $200,000 — didn’t need the money and that targeting the plan could have opened up funds to provide additional help for low-income people. Mills said she and other Democrats agreed to raise the income thresholds to include wealthier people at the request of Republicans, who still rejected the measure.

“There is necessary relief in the package to keep the most vulnerable Mainers housed and warm during the winter, but at the same time, the state will be sending checks to well off individuals and families who don’t need the help,” Rep. Grayson Lookner (D-Portland) said of the plan Wednesday morning before the legislature voted on it.

“We simply cannot continue governing crisis to crisis with the governor giving the legislature limited options for shaping budgets that fund desperately needed programs for all Mainers,” Lookner added.

Rep. Sophia Warren (D-Scarborough) also expressed concerns with the plan. She said while newly-elected House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) pushed hard for a more equitable measure, other stakeholders were not willing to support such a package.

Like Lookner, Warren criticized the direct checks, arguing that high-income earners would receive money they don’t need. She said a better plan would be to lower the income threshold for checks to under $75,000 for single filers, which would free up additional money for the emergency rental assistance program, which is slated to soon run out of funds. Warren said securing funding for that program is an emergency and is something frontline communities have been asking for.

“This emergency measure has misplaced priorities inconsistent with the needs of Maine people,” she said, adding that the package did not “meet this moment and address this crisis.”

Other legislators also expressed concern about the plan even as they praised some aspects of the measure.

Rep. Sam Zager of Portland said the bill was good but not perfect. Zager said he fully supported the $21 million within the measure for emergency housing, which he noted Talbot Ross and others negotiated into the package. However, he said an even better bill would adjust the qualifications for the checks to better help low and middle-income people heat their homes and stay sheltered or use some of that money for other important policy priorities the legislature will consider this session.

“Longer term, we would be well served to optimize insulation and rapidly move to renewables like solar and wind. But the bill takes us some steps in a good direction … in time for winter,” Zager said Wednesday afternoon before the vote.

Rep. Ben Collings (D-Portland) added that while the bill is 95% beneficial, he and some other lawmakers “want to end the precedent of emergency relief going to households with close to 17k in monthly income,” calling it “absurd” that such households would have received the money.

Overall, Rep. Chris Kessler (D-South Portland) said the Democratic caucus worked hard to get aid to people who need it the most, such as those who are at risk of losing housing and those who are homeless. While the heating assistance plan could have been improved, Kessler said the bill would have helped people.

“I am not going to throw away the baby with the bathwater,” he said Wednesday morning.

_{Evan Popp studied journalism at Ithaca College and interned at the Progressive magazine, ThinkProgress and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. He then worked for the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper before joining Beacon. Evan can be reached at evan@mainebeacon.com.}

Secretary of State validates ballot measure to replace CMP, Versant with consumer-owned utility / Evan Popp

_{^{Advocates for a consumer-owned utility speak at a press conference outside the State House in 2021 | Photo via Seth Berry’s Facebook page}}

_{Originally published in the Maine Beacon on December 1, 2022}

A referendum campaign to replace Maine’s unpopular investor-owned utilities, Central Maine Power and Versant, with a nonprofit power company was certified by the Secretary of State’s Office on Wednesday, allowing the measure to appear on the November 2023 ballot.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced that the ballot campaign had submitted 69,735 valid signatures, exceeding the 63,067 signatures needed to trigger a referendum. The proposal to replace CMP and Versant will now go to the legislature for consideration. Lawmakers can either enact the bill or, in a more likely scenario, send it to Mainers for a vote next November.

“Thanks to the heroic effort of hundreds of volunteers across the state, Maine voters will now have the chance to choose between our two failing, foreign-owned power companies, CMP and Versant, and one owned by Maine people,” said Andrew Blunt, executive director of Our Power, the group spearheading the ballot initiative.

As Beacon previously reported, the referendum will ask Mainers if they want to replace CMP and Versant with the Pine Tree Power Company, a consumer-owned utility that would provide power to most municipalities in Maine, except the 97 Maine towns already served by other consumer-owned utilities. The legislature passed a bill in 2021 to put the same question to the voters in November of that year but that measure was vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills, prompting Our Power to launch the referendum effort instead.

The idea to replace CMP and Versant — Maine’s two largest utilities — was originally spurred by those utilities’ poor performances. Our Power has pointed out that CMP has the worst customer satisfaction among large and mid-sized utilities in the country and Versant is among the worst rated. In addition, under those utilities, Mainers have endured the most power outages of any state and the second longest period with no power. Despite that, electricity rates in Maine are the sixth highest in the country, and CMP made $40.5 million in profit in the second quarter of 2022.

“With rates through the roof and a hard winter ahead, Mainers are more ready than ever for a local power company that lowers our bills instead of making wealthy corporations richer,” Blunt said Wednesday.

Along with the argument that the Pine Tree Power Company would lower rates — a point that has held true for the consumer-owned utilities that already serve part or all of 97 towns in Maine — advocates say moving away from CMP and Versant and toward public power would boost reliability for customers by allowing for investment of money into improving and updating the grid rather than a focus on profits.

“After a year of connecting with Maine people and collecting signatures from almost every town in the state, we are proud to offer a brighter future for our state’s electric grid and cheaper power for Maine ratepayers,” John Brautigam, Our Power’s board president, said.

Wil Thieme of Maine Public Power, a project of the Maine Democratic Socialist of America, which supports the ballot measure campaign, also celebrated the successful validation of the signatures and called on CMP and Versant to respect that verification.

“Now that the confirmation of signatures is complete, our profiteering utility opponents have just over a week to sue to get signatures thrown out, a move that would undermine the democratic process and silence the voices of Maine voters,” he said. “Fortunately, thanks to the significant margin of excess signatures collected by our wonderful volunteers, the chances of them invalidating enough signatures to boot us from the ballot are slim.”

Even if the utilities don’t fight the signature verification, the Our Power campaign will certainly face stiff opposition from CMP — whose leading owners are the governments of Norway and Qatar — and Versant, which is owned by Calgary, Canada. For example, in 2022 alone, Maine Affordable Energy — a group funded by CMP parent company Avangrid that is opposing the consumer-owned utility referendum — spent over $7 million without a referendum even on the ballot.

And in an additional effort to target the Our Power campaign, No Blank Checks, a group also funded by Avangrid, is pushing for their own referendum in November 2023 that would bar “a quasi-independent state entity, reporting entity, municipal electric district” and consumer-owned utility or rural electrification cooperative from incurring over $1 billion in debt, unless approved by voters.

However, that referendum contains a number of carve-outs, exempting from voter approval debts of the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, the Finance Authority of Maine, the Maine Health and Higher Education Facilities Authority, the Department of Transportation, the Maine Turnpike Authority, municipalities and counties and the Maine Municipal Bond Bank, making it even more clear that the ballot measure is targeted at the Our Power campaign.

Leaders of No Blank Checks say they have collected the number of signatures needed to put that referendum on the ballot. However, they have not yet submitted their petitions to the Secretary of State’s Office.

_{^{Photo: Former legislator Seth Berry and members of Our Power speak at a press conference outside the State House in 2021.}}

Maine News: Here’s how your state legislator voted on environmental issues this year / by Evan Popp

_{^{Photo: A climate justice rally in Augusta | Courtesy of 350 Maine}}

_{Originally published in the Beacon, https://mainebeacon.com/}

Maine Conservation Voters on Tuesday released its legislative scorecard for 2022, calling this year’s session “a banner year for Maine’s environment, climate and democracy” but acknowledging that “in the same moment, much of what we value is at risk.”

The group scored how Maine lawmakers voted on seven bills this year, including a measure to provide access to safe drinking water for the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik and a bill to close a loophole that allows out-of-state waste to end up in Juniper Ridge Landfill.

The group also scored a bill meant to increase accountability standards for utilities and facilitate grid planning, a measure to ban the application of PFAS-contaminated sludge in order to protect Maine farmlands, legislation to upgrade water quality standards for Maine rivers and streams, a bill to increase opportunities for climate education in schools, and legislation to ensure Maine elections are transparent and secure.

Each of those bills passed the legislature and became law with support from Gov. Janet Mills. The path to getting the measures approved wasn’t always smooth, though. Mills originally expressed opposition to the Passamaquoddy water rights bill before eventually negotiating a deal and signing the legislation. On the utility accountability measure, public power proponents had concerns that the legislation didn’t do enough to hold Central Maine Power and Versant accountable but ultimately reached an agreement that included further performance standards for the utility companies.

“Together with Governor Janet Mills, the Maine Legislature passed significant policies that equitably tackle climate change, invest in healthy communities, protect our environment and democracy, and advance environmental justice,” Maine Conservation Voters wrote as part of the scorecard.

In total, 84 lawmakers received a 100% score from the group, meaning they supported each of the bills Maine Conservation Voters pushed for. No Republicans received a perfect score from the organization. The highest mark for a GOP legislator was given to Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford), who received a score of 86%. The only priority bill that Bennett opposed was the climate education measure.

To look up your legislators’ scores, click here.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers received perfect marks, including Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook), Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli (D-Sagadahoc), and Assistant Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland). The party’s House leadership team — Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford), Majority Leader Michelle Dunphy (D-Old Town) and Assistant Majority Leader Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) — also received 100% scores.

Five Republican lawmakers were given a score of zero, meaning they didn’t vote for any of Maine Conservation Voters’ priority bills. Those legislators were Richard Cebra (R-Naples), Josanne Dolloff (R-Milton Township), David Haggan (R-Hampden), Frances Head (R-Bethel) and Dwayne Prescott (R-Waterboro). These scores combined anti-environmental votes with absences, which the scorecard weighed the same as a vote against a priority bill.

Rep. Braden Sharpe (D-Durham) and Rep. Chad Grignon (R-Athens) also received scores of zero on account of being absent for each of the votes on the environmental measures included in the scorecard.

While the Maine Conservation Voters’ scorecard shows that environmental advocates got many of their priorities over the finish line in the 2022 session, some activists were disappointed by what they felt were missed opportunities to combat climate change and protect the state’s ecosystem during the first session of the 130th Legislature in 2021.

One area of frustration was Mills’ veto of a bill to replace CMP and Versant with a consumer-owned utility — a measure proponents argued would help spur Maine’s transition to clean electricity. Environmental advocates have also criticized the governor’s veto of a bill to ban aerial spraying of hazardous herbicides such as glyphosate and Mills’ opposition to a measure that would reinforce the sovereignty of the Wabanaki and affirm the tribes’ right to regulate natural resources and land use on their territory.

But while activists and green groups have had their disagreements with Mills — a Democrat — Maine Conservation Voters Action Fund warned that the progress made in the last couple of years would be put at risk if her Republican opponent, former governor Paul LePage, is elected this November.

Criticizing LePage’s anti-environment legacy when he was governor, the group recently endorsed Mills for reelection.

It’s “Now or Never” on Climate Change / by Mel Gurtov

_{^{Photo credit: Japan Times}}

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group report gives us until 2030 to stop global warming at 1.5°C. The report proposes several steps that are vital to achieving that goal. The steps are:

* Coal must be effectively phased out.

* Methane emissions must be reduced by a third.

* More forests must be planted and soils must be preserved.

* The shift to a low-carbon world requires huge new investments, which now are about six times lower than they should be.

All sectors of the global economy, from energy and transport to buildings and food, must change dramatically and rapidly, and new technologies including hydrogen fuel and carbon capture and storage will be needed.

What chance do we have of getting even close to meeting those requirements?

Getting tough with the culprits

Evidently, not much. John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy, says we’re on track to see global warming rise to between 2 and 2.7 degrees Celsius in the near future. The IPCC says the same. A basic problem is that no regulatory body exists that can tell individual governments what they should be doing to meet their climate responsibilities. That job is left to an informed public, responsible governments, and especially nongovernmental expert groups to figure out.

For example, how can we bring the fossil fuel industry to heel? Research has shown that the Big Four oil companies—Chevron, Shell, BP, and Exxon-Mobil—are alone responsible for 10 percent of global emissions. The Union of Concerned Scientists tries to answer that question in the Winter 2022 issue of Catalyst. UCS lays out four ways to undo the damage to the environment being caused by the major and lesser oil and gas companies:

1. Compiling evidence of what Big Oil scientists knew and know about climate change that they did or did not choose to disclose to outsiders.

2. Increasing lawsuits against fossil fuel companies at city, county, and state levels for damages to the environment and fraudulent risk statements. (Right now, 29 such suits are in progress.)

3. Calling out Big Oil lobbyists who seek to obstruct Congressional action on climate change.

4. Providing science-based information on the carbon emissions of the major oil companies.

But facts, pressure, and lawsuits have thus far failed to move the Big Four and their friends in legislatures. And even if those folks can be forced to make policy changes, will they be in time to save us from the predicted increase in floods, hurricanes, disease, forest loss, and drought?

Ways forward on the technological side

Proponents of technological tools for fighting climate change think they have an answer. Dave Roberts, a strong voice on clean energy, cites rapid advances in electrification of cars, industry, and buildings as the key to meeting climate change goals. Prices for the technology are coming down very fast, he says:

“The tools for electrification, which are mainly wind and solar power, batteries, and then electrolysis to create green hydrogen, all four of those technologies are on what are called learning curves, which means, every time the deployment, the global deployment of those technologies doubles, their price drops by a predictable amount.”

Four scientists who helped write the IPCC report support Roberts’ prescription, adding that we shouldn’t be so concerned about which energy renewables or which technology will contribute most to offsetting carbon emissions. The main point, the IPCC says, is that:

“For the coming decade, rapidly reducing coal electricity and building extensive wind, solar and storage systems are low-cost strategies in many places, regardless of how much energy might or might not eventually come from renewables. This is because plummeting costs make solar and wind increasingly competitive, and electricity from solar is now the ‘cheapest source of electricity in history’ in some locations, according to the International Energy Agency. Moreover, the costs of batteries and other storage technologies are also declining.”

Indeed, a look at the maps below of reliance on wind and solar energy reveals that Europe is far ahead of the rest of the world, with nine of the top ten countries (led by Denmark at an astounding 52 percent) relying on wind and solar for electricity. Contrast that with the US (13%), China (11%), and India (8%), showing that in terms of population, we have a long way to go before green energy wins out.

Time is not on our side

A major move in electrification will be helpful, but it will only be a partial response to the climate crisis. For instance, it won’t address all the sources of climate change, such as methane, the most potent greenhouse gas whose principal human-activity source is agriculture.

Furthermore, past experience shows that environmental remedies do not necessarily create trickle-down effects. The poorest countries and the poorest people are most affected and least helped, especially financially, by environmental abuses over which they have no control. Cost estimates on countering climate change run into the trillions of dollars.

Then there are irresponsible governments, such as the Bolsonaro regime in Brazil, which is now engaged in the criminal destruction of the Amazon’s forests and its indigenous people; and China, which has ramped up coal mining. Forest and species loss is very high despite commitments made at COP26 last year.

And let’s not omit irresponsible fossil fuel companies, which only want to talk about increasing production, not alternative energy and conservation. Meantime, in a world of 1.5°C to 2.0°C warming, the IPCC report predicts not just extraordinary damage to world food supplies—perhaps eight percent of the world’s farmland no longer producing food, for example—but also very high death tolls from environmental emergencies. And those predictions predate the Ukraine war, which has caused huge grain losses.

Now or never

One of the many authors of the IPCC report said: “It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5°C Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.”

John Kerry, in a recent interview, was equally realistic, which is to say, putting the best face on a dire situation. He said:

“We’re way behind. And we’re not going to catch up in that period of time. The best thing that we can do at this point is win the battle of getting on track faster. We could be deploying the renewable technology we have today much faster, to a much greater extent and begin to bring down the emissions, notwithstanding Ukraine, notwithstanding the pressure people are feeling about the supply of oil and gas and fossil fuel. Just the transition off of coal or oil to gas will help us meet the goal of this next six to 10 years.”

In a nutshell, if the will and the politics were there, we can get through the climate crisis. But those who have the power to make it so have other plans.

_{Mel Gurtov is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Perspective, an international affairs quarterly and blogs at In the Human Interest.}

_{Counterpunch, May 24, 2022, https://www.counterpunch.org/}

Maine News: Dems back progressive reforms in platform but protesters say party fell short on tribal rights / by Evan Popp

_{^{Top photo: Gov. Janet Mills outside the Maine Democratic Convention over the weekend | Photo via Maine Democrats on}}

Maine Democrats finalized their party platform at a convention over the weekend in Bangor, including some progressive policy principles such as the right to health care, housing, food and reproductive freedom but also drawing the ire of youth advocates who pointed out the party’s failure to pass a bill recognizing the sovereignty of the Wabanaki tribes this past legislative session.

The convention comes as Maine — and the rest of the country — is preparing for a pivotal midterm contest in November. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills will face a difficult reelection battle against conservative Trump supporter Paul LePage and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden will likely be up against Republican Bruce Poliquin in a race for Maine’s Second Congressional District.

Around the state, legislators will also face reelection in November. Progressives are hoping to gain ground in Augusta but Republicans have their sights set on breaking the Democratic stronghold in the State House.

Against that backdrop, Democrats gathered to set their policy agenda and listen to speeches from party leaders such as Mills, Golden, U.S. Rep Chellie Pingree, Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau and state Senate President Troy Jackson.

“So much of what we value so deeply is on the ballot,” Mills said in a speech at the convention, Spectrum News reported. “The right to affordable health care, including safe and legal abortion, the right to a great education for every child in Maine regardless of their ZIP code.”

“We won’t go back,” the governor said at multiple points.

Tribal sovereignty a point of contention

One of the most powerful moments of the event, however, took place outside the convention hall, where around two dozen youth leaders held a demonstration Saturday calling for Democrats in Maine to fully support recognizing the sovereignty of the Wabanaki tribes.

Specifically, the youth groups rallied around LD 1626, a bill the legislature considered this session that would have ensured that tribes in Maine are treated like other federally-recognized Indigenous nations around the country. Advocates wrote chalk messages in support of Wabanaki rights and talked with elected officials who were headed into the convention about the importance of the measure.

Despite receiving massive grassroots support, that bill was opposed by Mills throughout the legislative process. And although almost every Democrat in the legislature supported the bill during initial votes, they failed to advance the measure to the governor’s desk after she applied pressure on lawmakers to kill it, likely hoping to avoid a high-profile veto of a bill widely supported by the party’s base.

“Democratic leaders did not respect the tribes nor represent future generations when making the decision to kill LD 1626. We were watching, and we see you,” over 20 youth leaders at the protest said in a joint statement.

In an interview, youth community organizer Luke Sekera-Flanders said young people were there to bring attention and accountability to the death of the tribal sovereignty bill in the Democratic-led legislature and to ask the party to stand in solidarity with the Wabanaki and do everything it can to support Indigenous rights going forward.

“Respecting the inherent sovereign rights of the Wabanaki nations is on the current party platform. LD 1626 was a key step, it was really the only measure to fully recognize tribal sovereignty put forward this session and [Democrats] did not support that as strongly as they could have,” Sekera-Flanders said.

Youth activists outside the Maine Democratic convention on Saturday pushing for tribal sovereignty | Sunlight Media Collective

The party platform approved over the weekend states “we must recognize, honor, and uphold the sovereignty and self-governance of all tribes in Maine.”

Democrats in the State House did work with tribes to make some progress this legislative session, approving a bill to address the water crisis at the Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Reservation and a measure to allow tribes to run online sports betting markets. But Wabanaki leaders don’t view either of those bills as a full recognition of their sovereignty.

Saturday’s protest outside the convention drew significant attention, as Sekera-Flanders said convention security personnel washed away chalk messages supporting tribal sovereignty. He added that someone inside the hall called the police about the messages and about the protest and young people’s efforts to engage with legislators around LD 1626. He noted the irony of the authorities being notified, given that Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins was recently widely mocked for calling police about a chalk message in front of her home in support of abortion rights. Sekera-Flanders said he doesn’t know who specifically within the convention complained to the police.

On Monday, a Maine Democratic Party official told Beacon the party itself did not call the police on the youth activists.

The fate of the sovereignty bill is just one frustration some advocates have with Mills, a conservative Democrat who has vetoed a number of progressive bills, including on issues related to workers rights, public electricity and criminal justice reform.

Still, Mills and Democrats will hope to gain significant support from left-leaning voters in the upcoming election and have repeatedly drawn attention to LePage’s disastrous legacy as governor, during which he made a series of racist comments, slashed the social safety net, ignored dangerous environmental problems and opposed policies to stop harmful treatment of LGBTQ Mainers.

At their convention earlier this month, the Maine GOP doubled down on extreme right-wing policies, such as proclaiming marriage as between only a man and a woman (an unpopular stance with the majority of Mainers), curbing abortion rights, anti-union policies, anti-immigrant proposals, and policies that would make it harder for certain people to vote.

Dems’ platform seeks to protect basic rights under attack

The Maine Democratic Party platform approved at the convention is vastly different from its GOP counterpart. For example, in the wake of a draft Supreme Court opinion taking aim at Roe v. Wade, Maine Democrats reiterated their support of bodily autonomy and reproductive health care.

The platform also includes support for LGBTQ rights, a direct contrast to the stance of the Maine Republican Party and the legacy of LePage, who vetoed a bill to ban conversion therapy that was later signed by Mills.

In addition, Democrats call for adequate health care, housing, education and food for all and argue it is a “moral failure in such a rich and powerful nation that many people do not enjoy such basic human rights.”

In many areas, the platform does not put forward specific policy prescriptions for solving political issues, instead relying on value statements. The platform is non-binding, although it does provide a glimpse into what issues are important to the party.

Maine Democrats also say in their platform that they support equal pay for equal work, a living wage, paid vacation and family and medical leave, and the right to unionize. In addition, they state that too much wealth has been concentrated in the hands of the few and argue for progressive taxation as a remedy. Such values haven’t yet resulted in legislative action, though, as Democrats have had full control in Augusta since 2019 but haven’t reversed LePage-era tax cuts favoring the wealthy and corporations. Mills during her first gubernatorial campaign pledged not to raise taxes, complicating the path for progressive revenue bills in the legislature.

Along with economic rights, the platform spells out the imperative to address the climate crisis, with the party stating that without bold action, “none of our visions for a better world will be achievable.” Environmental policies put forward in the document include reducing greenhouse gas emissions through a rapid shift to green technology and increases in energy efficiency.

The platform also includes support for full funding of public education and “an honest treatment of all subjects, with a curriculum guided by educators, not corrupted by political agendas rooted in prejudice or unhinged from reality,” likely a reference to efforts by conservatives, including the Maine GOP, to censor certain forms of education, such as teachings about race and sex ed.

Criminal justice reform is mentioned in the document as well, with the party stating that the War on Drugs has had racist, unjust consequences and that reforms to the system must emphasize rehabilitation and evidence-based alternatives to incarceration for those with mental health issues and substance use disorder. That section, however, is one of several in which the platform contains differences with Mills’ view. The governor is a former prosecutor who has blocked or opposed a series of criminal justice reforms.

In addition, the Press Herald reported that some specific progressive criminal justice reform measures, such as decriminalizing drugs and sex work and ending mass incarceration and cash bail, were put forward as proposed amendments but not included in the platform. A proposal to support the campaign to replace Central Maine Power and Versant with a consumer-owned utility also failed. Mills has opposed the push for a consumer-owned utility.

The Democratic platform also expresses concern about the increasing hostility toward democracy exhibited by many, such as those in the Republican Party who have trumpeted former President Donald Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen and have failed to condemn the attempted January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“American Democracy faces an existential threat. The values and rights espoused in the U.S. Constitution are under attack,” the platform reads. “Maine Democrats are pledged to protect them and to ensure they endure.”

_{Originally published in the Maine Beacon, May 17, 2022, https://mainebeacon.com/}