Maine Board of Environmental Protection rejects Advanced Clean Car II Act

The Board of Environmental Protection received nearly 3,000 public comments on a proposed rule to bring more zero-emission vehicles to Maine that was ultimately voted down Wednesday. 

Four members voted against implementing the rule and two voted in support. Though, for many board members, it wasn’t an easy decision. Some said they still weren’t sure how they would vote even less than an hour before the vote was taken. 

The Advanced Clean Cars II Act originated in California and has been adopted by more than a dozen states since including New York, Vermont and Massachusetts. In Maine, it would have required 82% of new vehicles sold in the state to be electric by 2032. The rule would not affect existing cars in the state. 

“I literally wake up at 3 in the morning saying ‘what about this, what about that,’” said Robert Duchesne, a former legislator who serves on the board.

Duchesne voted against the rule, but he said that could have been different had the vote been taken five minutes later. However, he is confident that electric vehicles are no longer just a vision of the future. They are here now, he said, and he thinks the rule will come back to the board sooner or later. 

Board chair Sue Lessard said she spent 45 hours reading every word of comment and material given to the board regarding this rule. She also voted against the rule because she had too many lingering questions and felt such a “massive” decision may be better placed in the hands of elected officials. 

“I’m not sure we are — given the magnitude of this decision — that we are the right decision makers,” Lessard said of the governor-appointed body, adding that she hopes the Legislature takes it up.

The board deliberated on how this rule could affect the electrical grid and whether the state actually has the infrastructure to support vehicle charging. In discussion with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), it was concluded that many of the concerns came down to public perception and the unknowns that can come with large technological advancements, such as this shift away from combustion engines. 

The department walked through publicly available charging infrastructure in the state, but also said the expectation is that most people would charge at home. Currently, Maine has more than 1,000 public charging ports. And because the rule was designed to be a gradual increase only affecting new cars sold, there wouldn’t be a large influx in demand on the grid right away, explained Jeff Crawford, director of the DEP’s air quality bureau. 

Being one of the two votes in support, Steven Pelletier, a certified biologist, said the clean cars rule was the “biggest bite of an apple” the state could take to address climate change. He recognized that it wouldn’t be without challenges and that public perception struggles with components of the rule, but he said, “I think we’re a bigger fool if we don’t try to do something consequential.”

New federal standards announced

While Maine was deliberating its own cleaner air standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized its strongest regulations yet for passenger cars, light-duty trucks and medium-duty vehicles for model years 2027 through 2032. The standards will hasten the adoption of cleaner vehicle technologies to deliver “significant” pollution reductions, said a news release from the EPA.

“These standards will avoid more than 7 billion tons of carbon emissions and provide nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits to society,” including public health benefits and reduced annual fuel costs, the release said.

Unlike the new EPA rule, the proposed clean cars rule in Maine wouldn’t have applied to medium-duty vehicles.

Ahead of the final vote, the Maine DEP argued that the new federal standards shouldn’t be a deterrent to moving forward with the clean car rule in Maine, especially since the federal program is likely to face legal challenges that could delay or upend its implementation.

“This is risk free,” said Lynne Cayting, who works in the air quality bureau. “If the federal program goes into effect and you are satisfied with it, you simply repeal it and we have the federal program.”

‘A disappointing day for Maine’

The vote comes three months after it was rescheduled due to a wind and rain storm that washed out hundreds of roads and knocked out power to an estimated 500,000 households across the state.

Fact check: The Advanced Clean Car rule wouldn’t force Mainers to buy EVs

With transportation contributing nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions in Maine, climate advocates have supported the rule as a means to curb pollution while expanding vehicle options for consumers. 

The rule is in line with a recommendation from a December 2021 roadmap that was developed to help Maine clean up the transportation sector by 2030, with the proliferation of electric and hybrid vehicles being a large part of the plan. 

Republican legislators largely opposed the rule, claiming it would hurt Maine’s middle class by forcing them to buy electric vehicles. But under Advanced Clean Cars II, the only group that would be subject to any requirements would be car manufacturers. Additionally, the rule only applies to brand new vehicles and would not require anyone to surrender their existing gas-powered vehicles. 

Advocates expressed dismay after the vote, saying the board had been swayed by disinformation about the rule. 

“It’s a disappointing day for Maine,” said Matt Cannon, conservation and energy director with Sierra Club Maine.

“Today, the Board has willingly fallen prey to the fossil fuel industry’s misinformation campaign peddled by Republican leaders,” Cannon said. “The gas and oil industry would like Maine to continue burning fossil fuels and delay adopting common-sense solutions, like ACCII, that address the climate crisis and protect consumer costs.”

Paulina Muratore, transportation campaign manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said Maine “is now significantly falling behind on the road to clean transportation.” 

“Switching from gasoline and diesel engines to electric motors is one of the most effective ways to reduce this damaging pollution,” Muratore said. “ACCII would have provided a clear and achievable roadmap to a cleaner future and would have given consumers more electric vehicle choices.”

In a statement, Maine House Republicans celebrated the vote, crediting public opposition with the rule’s failure.

In an effort to provide another layer of approval for such regulations going forward, Rep. Michael Soboleski (R-Phillips) put forth a bill (LD 2261) that would require legislative approval for Advanced Clean Cars II, as well as any new rules adopted by the DEP regarding motor vehicle emission standards. 

Soboleski addressed the board at Wednesday’s meeting, before his bill had a public hearing before the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee. Even though the board did not adopt this rule, Soboleski said he was going to continue pursuing his bill so that these regulations would go before the Legislature if they were to come back up in the future.