Maine approves law to reduce oil use

A Republican-led legislature passed An Act to Improve Maine’s Energy Security, which the HuffPost Green calls “great news for energy independence. It sets ambitious goals for reducing economy-wide oil use in Maine: by at least 30 percent by 2030, and 50 percent by 2050. The law directs state agency reforms, including the Department of Transportation and housing authorities, to meet the goal. A state office will regularly issue updates on progress toward meeting oil reduction targets and recommend measures that could meet those goals. The office is directed to focus on near-term policies and infrastructure changes that set the state on a reasonable trajectory to meet the targets. This is good stuff. ‘Thankfully, Maine has many tools that we can use to reduce our dependence on oil — safeguarding not only our economy and our national security, but our environment as well,’ said Environment Maine Director Emily Figdor, who led the effort to pass the bill. ‘By getting the most out of every drop of oil we use through improved energy efficiency, shifting toward transportation systems that use less oil, and by substituting clean fuels for both heating and transportation, Maine can achieve a dramatic reduction in our use of oil.’” The test will be to see if the combination of statewide goals and regular progress reports will produce the hard results. Read the full HuffPost article here.