Today, Governor Janet Mills’s address at the Governor’s International Breakfast, hosted by the World Affairs Council of Maine, underscored Maine’s status as a global leader in the fight to tackle the climate crisis. Since arriving in the Blaine House, Governor Mills has taken aggressive action to curb emissions and prepare Maine’s communities for the effects of climate change. As a result, Maine is on pace to hit its groundbreaking climate goals, including achieving carbon neutrality by 2045,
The progress made by Mills and Democrats in the Legislature is even more impressive against the backdrop of the eight years before Mills took office. Her predecessor, Paul LePage, ignored climate science, obstructed efforts to address Maine’s carbon pollution, and left Maine lagging behind other states and the rest of the world. LePage was the only governor on the Eastern Seaboard to advocate for more offshore drilling, and fought almost any form of climate action despite the Gulf of Maine warming faster than nearly any body of water in the world. Now, he’s running for governor once again to undo the progress Mills has made.
“It is wonderful to see Maine recognized as a leader in the global fight to take on climate change,” said Drew Gattine, Chair of the Maine Democratic Party. “However, it wasn’t always this way. When Paul LePage was governor, he refused to address our state’s carbon emissions, despite the risk to our communities, our businesses, and our environment from the coming climate crisis. Now that we’ve made progress under Janet Mills, we can’t let LePage reverse our progress to put us at risk once again.”
Read more about Paul LePage’s failure to prepare the state for the climate crisis here and here.
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