Maine youth, environmentalists sue the state for lack of action to cut carbon emissions
Climate change protesters in 2019 at an event in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
Maine youth and environmentalists are suing the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for what they allege is a failure to take action on cutting carbon emissions.
Conservation Law Foundation, Maine Youth Action and the Sierra Club filed a petition in the Maine Superior Court against the DEP for not following a 2019 law that requires the state to cut its carbon emissions 45% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
“Our generation will inherit a state overwhelmed by carbon emissions and climate change — with damage to the environment, to marine life, and to our own health — if we can’t start making these changes now,” said Cole Cochrane, co-founder and policy director of Maine Youth Action.
The DEP declined to comment about the suit. However, Gov. Janet Mills put out a proclamation Monday in honor of Earth Day saying the state has made “extraordinary progress toward our climate goals,” referring to the state’s climate action plan, Maine Won’t Wait, that is intended to act as a roadmap for businesses and communities to urgently take action.
However, the environmental groups bringing the lawsuit claim the state has failed to take any significant steps to lower emissions since the law was enacted five years ago.
For example, the lawsuit includes the Board of Environmental Protection due to its recent rejection of a rule that would have required clean, electric vehicles to make up the majority of new car sales by 2030. The board rejected that rule last month in part because of what it said were lingering questions about the policy, as well as because they believed such a large decision would be better placed in the hands of elected officials.
With transportation contributing nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions in Maine, climate advocates supported the rule as a means to curb pollution while expanding vehicle options for consumers.
“The failure in curbing emissions from cars and trucks — Maine’s biggest source of pollution — has been stark,” said the release about the lawsuit.
The lawsuit argues that Maine citizens represented by the groups have suffered harms related to the lack of action to address climate change, including “property and financial impacts due to sea level rise and other climate change effects; impacts on winter recreational activities that are snow- or ice- dependent; negative health impacts from elongated and worsened allergy seasons; and consumer harm from lack of choice of affordable zero emission vehicles in Maine.”
“Defendants’ failure or refusal to fulfill their obligations causes these harms by failing to mitigate and protect Maine residents from the worst effects of climate change,” the suit states.
Emily K. Green, senior attorney for Conservation Law Foundation Maine, said the parties don’t want to have to go to the courts to pursue climate action. “Environmentalists, health advocates, concerned young people — all of us want to work with the state to cut these emissions, curb climate change, and improve respiratory and heart health,” Green said. “We shouldn’t have to sue to make that happen.”
Though not directly named in the suit, a proposed constitutional amendment that would grant Mainers the right to a clean and healthy environment has also faced inaction in the Maine Legislature. The bill, LD 928, was tabled by the Maine House of Representatives in April 2023 and remained untouched. With the close of the legislative session, that bill will die without a floor vote.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to note the DEP declined to comment on the suit.
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