Maine’s Annual Report Card for Global Warming: Finest Kind in New England

[jpak]

http://environmentmaine.org/envmaine.asp?id2=26182

Maine’s Annual Report Card for Global Warming: Highest Grade in New England

PORTLAND—A regional “report card” released today by a coalition of environmental advocates in New England and Eastern Canada gives Maine a “B” for its actions to reduce global warming pollution over the last year. The report card evaluates the states and provinces against the specific commitments that they made in 2001. Maine received a “C” in 2004 and a “B-“in 2005. Maine has improved its grade—earning the highest grade in New England for 2006 and is only second to the Province of Quebec, which scored a “B+”.

However, significant emission reductions have yet to be seen across the region. “Maine’s progress has been good, but we need aggressive implementation of Maine’s Climate Action Plan to ensure real emission reductions to meet the agreement’s timeline and to avoid the worst effects of global warming over the long-term,” said Jennifer Andersen of Environment Maine.

The release of the 2006 Report Card on Climate Change Action coincides with the five-year anniversary of the signing of the 2001 regional climate agreement by the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers. The agreement outlines global warming policies that the states and provinces should be implementing and commits the region to the following goals:

<snip>

“Although Maine continues to be a leader on climate policy there is still a lot more we have to do to ensure emission reductions by: investing more in energy efficiency; increasing the amount of renewable energy we generate and use; developing bio-fuels; continuing the “cleaner cars” program and, expanding transit services in urban and rural areas including expansion of the Downeaster train service. The good news is that we still have time to meet these regional goals and with the continued support of Maine people and our state government, we will,” said Andersen.

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[mainegreen]

1. Out of curiosity....

Do you live in Maine (or NE)? It seems that both you and NNadir post a lot of Maine related links! Or is it that Maine just happens to be an interesting state as compared to others in this arena? Not that I mind, as living in Maine I find both your posts very interesting and informative!
:shrug:

[jpak]

2. I'm from Maine originally and have property and family up there

I post a lot of Maine stuff because I'm more familiar with the energy issues, politics and developments up there than elsewhere.

It's also a good example of a state that already uses large quantities of renewable energy and has a huge potential for renewable energy development in the near future.

It's also a good example to use when people post stuff like....duuuhhh....solar energy don't work...duuhhhhh...solar don't work up north...duhhhhh...renewable energy can't do nothin'...duhhhhh...etc.

:evilgrin:

I cannot speak for "others" though...

[skids]

3. I actually think the Maine versus New Jersey threads are a hoot. n/t