Legislature supports two major environmental bills

Proposals to enroll Maine in regional carbon emissions reduction pact, phase out hazardous chemical in households earn support in Maine Senate

June 5, 2007

AUGUSTA – Two bills that will stand as a legacy for the 123rd Maine legislature as a leading state in environmental policy were supported within a few hours of each other on Tuesday, as the Maine Senate gave initial approval to a bill that will allow Maine to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and final enactment to one that will require the state to phase out use of a hazardous chemical in Maine households.

LD 1851 Establishes the Regional Greenhouse Gas Act, which officially enrolls Maine in the multi-state plan to reduce global warming pollution from northeastern power plants by 10 percent in the next 12 years. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI for short, establishes a carbon dioxide cap and regional carbon credit trade program with the participating states. Together these states add up to the seventh largest source of global warming pollution in the world, and more than 30 percent of the pollution comes from high-emission power plants.

Other states that have signed on to RGGI include New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Maryland. Maine is the third state, following Vermont and Connecticut, to enact language that officially enters the state into the accord.

“The Legislature passed a strong RGGI bill that is a credit to the collaborative effort of large and medium sized industrial and commercial energy users, energy producers including the Verso paper mill, environmental advocates and the Department of Environmental Protection, who worked for many weeks to craft a bill that will serve all interests in Maine,” said Rep. Ted Koffman, D-Bar Harbor, who sponsored the bill with Governor Baldacci and worked with legislative, business and environmental leaders to build support for the measure. “This law puts Maine in a leadership position among the ten states participating in the innovating greenhouse gas cap and trade program.”

The cap-and-trade program would set a cap on carbon dioxide emissions and require power plants to buy carbon credits at auction. Revenue from the auction of credits would be invested in programs to fund energy efficiency and reduce rates for consumers. Companies would be able to freely buy and sell carbon credits to meet their emission requirements, providing incentive for plants to cut their emissions so they may sell their credits to plants that have not.

Although the new guidelines are expected to lower energy rates over time as plants become more efficient, the bill also contains automatic consumer energy rebates that would kick in if rates temporarily increase beyond a certain point while power plants adjust.

The House passed the RGGI bill on an initial vote Thursday, 120-7. The Senate passed it unanimously.

The Senate also enacted a bill Tuesday that will phase out the use of a controversial flame retardant in Maine, by a staggering 32-2 majority.

LD 1658, sponsored by House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, was enacted unanimously last week in the House. It will now go to Governor Baldacci to sign into law.

The legislation will ban the use of deca-BDE in mattresses and furniture on January 1, 2008 and phase out its use in televisions and other plastic-cased electronics by January 1, 2010.

Researchers have found evidence that deca leaches off television sets and furniture and onto household dust, and is then inhaled or ingested. Traces of the chemical have been found in breast milk, and scientists believe that the substance causes slower brain development in children.

“We’ve performed exhaustive studies on deca for years,” said Pingree, who sponsored legislation to ban flame retardants in the same category as deca in 2004. “There’s no question that the chemical is harmful to women and children, animals and the environment. It has no place in Maine homes, and we hope that other states will follow our lead in moving toward safer alternatives.”

A series of tests performed on mice pups by the Maine CDC and by researchers in Sweden resulted in decreased motor skills, including reflexes and physical strength after a single exposure to deca.

Firefighter groups across the state have firmly endorsed the measure, saying that safer and equally effective alternatives are available. Representatives from the Professional Firefighters of Maine say that deca poses a real cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary threat to the health of firefighters during and long after they leave the scene of the fire, because it absorbs into their protective uniforms, which are then brought back to the fire station – and sometimes their homes.

Pingree’s bill also requires the DEP to continue its reporting process on the safety of existing flame retardants, and gives the Department authority along with the State Fire Marshal and the Maine Center for Disease Control in determining which products should be subject to a ban in the future. That amendment was added to the bill by the Natural Resources Committee in a work session at the end of April, at which point the committee supported the measure by a 10-3 vote.

The bill has the strong support of the Professional Firefighters of Maine, the Maine Fire Chiefs, the state Fire Marshall and the Maine Fire Protection Services Commission, the Natural Resource Council of Maine, the Environmental Health Strategy Center, the Maine chapters of the American Lung Association Academy of Pediatrics and a host of more than 30 environmental and health advocates statewide.

Only representatives from the out-of-state chemical industry lobbied against the bill during the legislative process. No electronic manufacturers who use the product sent spokespeople to oppose the bill, and many of them have already started to move away from the controversial product.

The RGGI bill now returns to the House for final enactment, and then to the Senate. Governor Baldacci played an active role in negotiating the RGGI accord, and is expected to sign both bills into law.

Contact:

Travis Kennedy, Communications Director, 287-1433