To: Committee on Environment and Natural Resource
From: Ant Blasi, Sierra Club Maine
Date: April 30, 2021
Re: Testimony in Support of LD 1567
Dear Senator Brenner, Representative Tucker, and Environment and Natural Resource Committee Members:
I, Ant Blasi, from Hancock, write on behalf of Sierra Club and the over 20,000 members and supporters in Maine. Founded in 1892, Sierra Club is one of our nation’s oldest and largest environmental organizations. We work diligently to amplify the power of our 3.8 million members nation-wide as we move to demand bold solutions to the climate crisis. And, we urge you to pass LD 1567.
This bill puts Maine’s “money where its mouth is,” in providing revenues for climate change mitigation and implementing Climate Action Plan provisions, in sectors that do not receive such funding now. It establishes a new fund by depositing money already being collected on fossil fuel transactions to be used for sustainable expenditures by agencies and low-income recipients to increase their climate change action capabilities, which they otherwise would be unable to fulfill if they desired to do so. How else will this demographic feel that it can contribute to combatting the climate emergency crisis we face. All Mainers should be able to take pride in having some ability to help mitigate climate change.
LD 1567 provides loans and grants to supplement existing rebate programs for Efficiency Maine Trust and the reasonable administrative costs a community action agency incurs to disburse them. The fiscal note is a transfer of existing revenues, not additional taxation. The bill rectifies the current disproportionate assessment on unregulated fuels by requiring that gasoline and propane vendors (are assessed) contribute to Efficiency Maine.
The Climate Change Equitable Mitigation Fund is also needed to assist counties, municipalities, and select state programs to implement Maine’s Climate Action Plan Strategies that do not currently exist. Since the DEP is charged with promulgating the rules for using the fund’s resources, interested members of the public could participate on advisory committees or by contacting the department.
We urge Ought to Pass for LD 1567.
Respectfully submitted,
Ant Blasi
Legislative Team Volunteer and Hancock resident
Sierra Club Maine