This is the fourth in a series of episodes in season seven of Connect the Dots, the Center for Progressive Reform’s podcast on climate solutions. Subsequent posts will be posted throughout the summer.
Episode four—“Climate Win: Bipartisan Support in Climate Legislation”—features guests Stacy Brenner, a state senator representing Maine’s 30th district, and Jack Shapiro of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. The two joined Rob to discuss landmark climate legislation that was passed in Maine in May 2022. Sponsored by Senator Brenner, LD 1959 requires utility companies to undertake integrated grid planning processes every five years to support Maine’s requirements to reduce greenhouse gasses by 80 percent by 2050.
The new law requires the electric grid planning processes to begin with open, inclusive, and transparent technical conferences and stakeholder workshops. As part of the planning requirements, utility companies must also incorporate climate resiliency into plans in order to respond to extreme weather events that may disrupt energy services for Maine residents. In a state where service is notoriously unreliable, utility companies must now be more proactive in future planning.
Once utility companies file their plans, the plans are opened to public review and comment. The plans are also required to assess environmental, equity, and environmental justice impacts. While many states require separate assessments of equity or environmental justice, Maine is the first to incorporate this evaluation directly into grid planning. This provision ensures that companies consider how and which communities could be adversely impacted by clean energy development.
“We want to make sure that as we go through this, essentially, once in a century transition for our electric grid,” said Shapiro, “that we are well aware of where those impacts might land in a disproportionate way.”
The bill also outlines protective measures for whistleblowers. Employees or contractors who want to speak up about a company’s actions will be protected under this new measure.
When asked how she managed to gain bipartisan support for climate legislation, Senator Brenner explained that she and her colleagues approached the legislation with a focus on benefits that would resonate with conservative-leaning districts, including the financial wellbeing of consumers and fuel price stability. She also found that framing language is equally important. While “climate change” might be overwhelming or carry a certain connotation, a “clean energy economy” is clear and concrete.
Similar to Episode 7.1, Climate Win: Passing Maryland’s Climate Solutions Now Act, which featured a legislative climate win in Maryland, Senator Brenner and Shapiro recognize that no legislation can be passed without support. For Maine, achieving the state's climate goals requires collective effort, and LD 1959 has paved the way for future climate wins in the state and beyond.
For all the details to this episode, listen to Connect the Dots on your favorite podcasting platform and be sure to subscribe to catch the next episode on solar energy in Navajo Nation.
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Faith Duggan | July 13, 2023
This is the fourth in a series of episodes in season seven of Connect the Dots, the Center for Progressive Reform’s podcast on climate solutions. Subsequent posts will be posted throughout the summer. Episode four—“Climate Win: Bipartisan Support in Climate Legislation”—features guests Stacy Brenner, a state senator representing Maine’s 30th district, and Jack Shapiro of […]
Michael C. Duff | July 11, 2023
Nero fiddled, and I really don’t know how white powder made its way into the White House. But I do know that the California Supreme Court just issued an opinion in Kuciemba v. Victory Woodworks that will be incredibly hurtful to the working class during the next pandemic. I wonder how the California legislature will react.
Daniel Farber | July 10, 2023
The U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Sackett v. EPA dramatically curtails the permitting program covering wetlands. We urgently need to find strategies for saving the wetlands the Court left unprotected. We have a number of possible strategies and need to start work on implementing them immediately.
Faith Duggan | June 29, 2023
This is the third in a series about episodes in season seven of Connect the Dots, the Center for Progressive Reform’s podcast on climate solutions. Subsequent posts will be posted throughout the summer. Episode three, “Energy Justice and Community Solar Power,” takes listeners to North Carolina and reveals how community solar has the power to lower […]
Conor Klerekoper | June 29, 2023
Reeling from workers' gains during the New Deal and Civil Rights areas, future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell penned a memorandum that became the playbook for American corporations' domination over workers for the next five decades. He wrote that Big Business was under attack, and to counter what was becoming a more even distribution of gains for labor, industry must “assiduously cultivate…political power” and use it “aggressively and with determination.” Corporations across the country heeded Powell's call.
Brian Gumm | June 28, 2023
The federal Inflation Reduction Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) most recent power plant rules are big wins for climate and the environment. However, they both have their shortcomings, and one of them is their reliance on carbon capture and storage technologies to reach ambitious climate emissions goals. As a new Center for Progressive Reform report shows, carbon capture technologies are unproven and pose significant risks, especially to communities in states like Louisiana that are already overburdened by pollution.
Daniel Farber | June 22, 2023
In the recent debt ceiling law, Congress extensively revamped the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the law governing environmental impact statements. An obscure White House agency, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), will have the first opportunity to shape the interpretation of the new language.
Daniel Farber | June 20, 2023
Shortly after President Joe Biden signed the new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rewrite as part of the debt ceiling law, I wrote a blog post about a major drafting glitch at the heart of the new provisions. Today, I’d like to follow up with more examples.
Faith Duggan | June 16, 2023
When pollution from a neighboring freeway was seeping into the playground and classrooms of her middle school, Adah Crandall said enough was enough. She founded an Environmental Justice Club at her school and began protesting the freeway's proposed expansion, citing health hazards to children and an unsustainable future.