AUGUSTA - The debate about how to fight global climate change moved to the Legislature on Tuesday as lawmakers took up a proposal for Maine to join the nation's first multi-state effort to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
Environmentalists and academic experts, as well as power generators and manufacturers, urged lawmakers to support the plan, which would create a pollution trading market in Maine and nine other Eastern states.
"If we are going to tackle the problem globally, we have to start with our own state," said George Jacobson, a professor at the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute, at a public hearing held by the Natural Resources and Utilities and Energy committees.
A few opponents also weighed in, saying the plan would do little, if anything, to keep the planet from warming. Some warned that the plan could add to the cost of electricity in Maine.
The plan, negotiated by power generators, environmentalists and others, would require the owners of Maine's six largest power plants to pay for the right to release carbon dioxide -- a heat-trapping byproduct of fossil fuel combustion.
The money they paid to the state would be given out in grants to promote energy efficiency and conservation.
Gov. John Baldacci has pledged to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. It is up to the Legislature to approve details of the state's plan.
Power plants in the region would trade pollution allowances, giving them an incentive to cut pollution and sell the allowances to plants that need them.
"It unleashes the power of the business community to cut costs to innovate and lead us into the future," said Thomas Tietenberg, a professor at Colby College.
Participating states would freeze power plant emissions from 2009 to 2015, then reduce them 10 percent by 2019. Emissions would otherwise increase about 25 percent over that period, officials said.
"It's the dawning of a new day in our economy," said Rep. Ted Koffman, D-Bar Harbor, a sponsor of the bill.
Koffman and others said creating a national model would give Maine and the other states an economic advantage.
"We exist in a new generation now and I believe we're ready for this bill," said Sen. Dana Dow, R-Waldoboro.
A key factor for lawmakers will be the plan's impact on electricity customers here.
Power costs are expected to rise 1 percent to 2 percent in the short term. The increase is likely to occur whether or not Maine participates, because prices here are set in neighboring states that produce more power.
Over time, advocates say, prices will fall because of efficiency improvements and lower peak demands. "This bill improves Maine's ability to manage and reduce our costs," said Michael Stoddard, a lawyer for Energy Northeast, a nonprofit environmental advocate. It also "will change and clean up the kind of power plants we use to make electricity."
A representative of Central Maine Power Co. said the company supports the goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions but opposes the Maine plan because it could raise costs for Maine customers.
"Nobody here can yet predict exactly what it's going to cost customers," said David Allen.
Allen opposed parts of the plan that would use revenue from increased energy costs to pay for energy-efficiency programs. "It doesn't save all customers money. It may save some customers some money," he said.
Other opponents simply said the plan won't stop climate change on the global scale.
"Tell us how much global warming -- this apocalyptic problem -- we are preventing," said Jon Reisman, an associate professor at the University of Maine at Machias. "It's not good for Maine citizens to suggest we're going to do something about global warming when we're not."
Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at:
jrichardson@pressherald.com
