A proposal requiring legislative oversight for agency rulemaking related to vehicle emissions standards — including the establishment of “zero-emission requirements” — has gained broad, bipartisan support in Augusta.
The Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee had a public hearing and work session last week for LD 2261 — An Act Designating New Motor Vehicle Emissions Rules as Major Substantive Rules.
This bill was sponsored by Rep. Michael Soboleski (R-Phillips) and was cosponsored by a number of lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle, including prominent Democrats Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) and Speaker of the House Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland).
Among the Republican cosponsors of this legislation were Rep. Richard H. Campbell (R-Orrington), Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor), Rep. Reagan L. Paul (R-Winterport), Rep. Katrina J. Smith (R-Palermo), Sen. Russell Black (R-Franklin), Sen. Peter Lyford (R-Penobscot), and Sen. Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook).
After a brief discussion last week, the ENR Committee voted in favor of recommending that the full legislature pass LD 2261 as amended. All members present at the time voted in support of this motion.
Favoring the passage of LD 2261 as amended were Rep. Soboleski, Rep. David Woodsome (R-Waterboro), Rep. Tammy Schmersal-Burgess (R-Mexico), Sen. Peter Lyford (R-Penobscot), Sen. Stacy Brenner (D-Cumberland), Rep. Lori Gramlich (D-Old Orchard Beach), Rep. Dick Campbell (R-Orrington), Rep. Maggie O’Neil (D-Saco), Rep. Art Bell (D-Yarmouth), Rep. William Bridgeo (D-Augusta), and Rep. Daniel Hobbs (D-Wells).
Absent at the time of the vote were Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cumberland) and Rep. Victoria Doudera (D-Camden).
When this bill first proposed earlier this year, it included a provision that would retroactively apply these oversight requirements to the controversial, California-style zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate brought before the Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) by the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) last year.
The same day as the public hearing for LD 2261, the BEP voted 4-2 in opposition to the mandate — more formally known as the Advanced Clean Cars II program — making the retroactive application of this law effectively moot. Consequently, Committee members supported an amendment removing the retroactivity provision from the bill.
[RELATED: Maine BEP Rejects Controversial EV Mandate]
Although Maine law used to require under 38 M.R.S. § 585-D that rule changes related to vehicle emissions standards be subjected to legislative oversight, lawmakers repealed that provision in 2005.
With this portion of the law no longer on the books, the recently-rejected mandate was automatically categorized as routine technical when it was first taken up by the BEP, thus insulating it from legislative input.
In addition to the practical complications surrounding the implementation of the Advanced Clean Cars II program in Maine — including a lack of charging infrastructure, battery performance in cold climates, and cost barriers — the lack of oversight by elected officials also proved to be a major point of concern for Mainers.
LD 2261 is not the first attempt by elected officials to intervene in this process and increase their ability to oversee the agency’s rulemaking with respect to setting new statewide vehicle emissions requirements.
Towards the end of last year, Rep. Joshua Morris (R-Turner) petitioned the Legislative Council to allow lawmakers to consider a bill this session that aimed to achieve largely the same goals as LD 2261.
After being shot down by the Council during an initial vote on the proposal bill, Rep. Morris appealed their decision. Upon reconsideration, the Council ended up in a 5-5 tie over the measure, meaning that the bill was not given the opportunity to move forward in the legislative process.
The bill considered by the ENR Committee last week, however, was able to gain enough support from the Council to make it in front of lawmakers and give elected officials the opportunity to restore their oversight authority with respect to vehicle emissions rules.
As it was originally written, the proposed legislation would have given lawmakers the final say over the controversial ZEV mandate if the BEP had not voted to reject it at their March 20 meeting.
[RELATED: Maine Lawmakers May Get the Final Say on Controversial EV Mandate]
In Maine, there are two types of agency rulemaking: major substantive and routine technical. While routine technical rules can be adopted by an agency unilaterally, major substantive rules require approval from lawmakers before they can go into effect.
If legislators ultimately vote to pass LD 2261, all emissions-related rulemaking from this point forward would be automatically classified as major substantive, ensuring that these kind of changes would be subjected to oversight by elected officials.
Based on the discussion that took place during last week’s work session, the amended version of LD 2261 is also expected to include a requirement that the BEP report annually to the Legislature beginning in 2025 on the status of the Advanced Clean Cars II program in California and the other states that have adopted it, as well as on “federal motor vehicle control requirements.”
An additional amendment to the bill that was discussed during the work session was the inclusion of a one-time requirement for the BEP, the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO), the Efficiency Maine Trust, and the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) to collectively produce a report concerning the use of ZEVs in Maine.
This report would need to be presented to the relevant committees by January 1, 2025 and would be expected to address a number of points, including barriers to ZEV adoption in Maine, how ZEV adoption in Maine compares to national trends, strategies to reduce barriers to ZEV adoption in rural areas, and how these various barriers can be overcome through both market trends and policies.
The amended bill would also specify that the major substantive designation would be applied to rules adopted or amended after August 1, 2024.
The ENR Committee has not yet officially reported out its recommendation for LD 2216 to the full Legislature.
Click Here for More Information on LD 2216
It might be important to consider how this realignment of government authority from the executive branch to the legislative branch will play out by examining how the legislative branch has made life miserable for Maine folks with their “Carbon Zero” programs. The legislature is dominated by democratic party operatives fully bought and paid for by climate change zealots.
How many lawmakers, some who are not elected but have tremendous influence in Augusta, know how human derived carbon dioxide affects the climate and can fully, in layman’s language, explain it to the rest of us who have been coerced into paying billions of dollars to make their unplanned programs work?
Ask the PUC, who terminated contract negotiations with LS Power after LS Power proposed to increase their price to construct and operate a transmission line out of Aroostook County well beyond the initial $2.78 billion dollars. The PUC writes: “In its brief LS Power has made clear that it can no longer hold to the fixed price contained in its term sheet and that it requires a price adjustment. But nowhere in its brief or proposed Transmission Agreement does LS Power specify what the new price for its transmission project would need to be.” That decision by the PUC didn’t sit well with Senate President Troy Jackson, so he authored a bill to take over the official duties of the PUC. Part of the bill even seems likely to be directed at the PUC. Within the bill it is written “The Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program, referred to in this section as “the program,” is established to remove obstacles to the use of and to promote development of the substantial renewable energy resources in northern Maine.”
If the democrats can toss aside the PUC judgements that protect ratepayers, they most certainly can overwrite the BEP.
Get ready to buy your cars and trucks in New Hampshire, folks.
I can see why this has support.
Unelected bureaucrats should not be able to write laws, even if they call them “rules”.
my truck at 4000lbs does much less damage to our roads than my neighbor 6500lbs EV car and they pay no road taxes. Fair Mills?
EV’s, What a scam! No bureaurocrat or politician should have any say in what kind of vehicle you drive. That is between you and the maker/seller. Will these do gooder pols and bureaucrats just leave us alone? We’re big girls and boys who can decide for ourselves. My guess is no they won’t.