According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the share of Maine households using oil as their primary source of heat dropped more than six percent between 2022 and 2023, the largest decrease since at least 2010.
In 2010, about 70 percent of Maine households were reliant on oil as their primary heating source compared to just over 50 percent in 2023.
Gov. Janet Mills (D) connected this change to the rise in heat pump usage during her administration.
“When I took office, I made it a priority to help Maine households transition away from expensive, imported fossil fuels for heating and adopt high-efficiency heat pumps, which reduce household energy costs while keeping homes comfortable year-round,” Gov. Mills said.
“I am proud to see those efforts paying off, with reliance on heating oil rapidly declining across Maine and more homes than ever adopting heat pumps for affordable heating and cooling,” she continued. “While Maine is still highly dependent on fossil fuels, we will continue to accelerate the transition to heat pumps by leveraging unprecedented clean energy investments by the Biden-Harris Administration.”
Click Here to Read Gov. Mills’ Full Press Release
According to Yale Climate Connections — a project of Yale Center for Environmental Communication at Yale University — most heat pumps are able to run at full capacity at temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Although the systems will still produce heat at lower temperatures, heat pumps may “not necessarily keep it as warm as you may typically like.” In these cases, the group recommends turning to “backup heat sources,” noting that “supplementary heat is important for heat pumps in cold climates.”
While Maine’s whole-home heat pump rebate program allows homeowners to keep their existing heating systems for use in extremely cold weather, the initiative aimed at mobile and manufactured homeowners requires that any current heating system be removed.
Efficiency Maine explained in a statement to the Maine Wire that manufactured and mobile home owners must remove existing systems because the type of heat pump offered through this program must be able to utilize closet space that would otherwise by occupied by a furnace, as well as a home’s existing duct work.
They went on to say, however, that manufactured or mobile home owners may instead participate in the whole-home heat pump program if they would like to do so.
“In the instance of a whole-home heat pump system, we allow homeowners to keep their old system for emergency backup only in extremely cold temperatures,” Efficiency Maine said.
[RELATED: Maine Pols Tout $10M in Tax Dollars to Subsidize Heat Pumps]
It was announced in July of this year that Maine would be receiving part of a $450 million federal grant to “accelerate the adoption of heat pump technology.”
Five New England states — including Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island — were given a combined total of $450 million in federal funding for the joint New England Heat Pump Accelerator project.
This project aims to “leverage the power of a multi-state market to rapidly accelerate the adoption” of various heat pump technologies in single-family homes and other residential buildings in the region.
The goal of this project is to install nearly 580,000 heat pumps throughout New England, covering 65 percent of “residential-scale” heating and cooling sales by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040.
In 2023, Mills touted that Maine had met her goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps in the state two years ahead of schedule.
In light of this, she instituted an updated benchmark of having an additional 175,000 heat pumps installed by 2027.
“Since taking office, Governor Mills has prioritized action against climate change in Maine through reducing carbon emissions, transitioning to renewable energy, and making Maine communities more resilient to climate effects,” the Mills administration said of the accomplishment in a press release.
Shortly thereafter, the United States Climate Alliance — of which Mills is a co-chair — announced a new commitment to increasing heat pump usage nationwide four-fold by 2030.
The Coalition aims to reach a total of 20 million heat pump installations by the end of the decade, with “40% of the benefits flow[ing] to disadvantaged communities.”
“Transitioning to heat pumps in Maine is creating good-paying jobs, curbing our carbon emissions, cutting costs for families, and making people more comfortable in their homes,” Mills said during a conference held in September of 2023.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="31464 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=31464">5 Comments
Electricity prices are not going down and heat pump operating costs will exceed oil burning costs as long as Maine’s “Betters” cling to the climate change lie.
Liberals are experts at lying.
All you suckers who jump on this train , are gonna be real sorry in a couple of years ,when they realize that all the stuff they told you about these things “ saving money “ , was a big fat lie .
A thousand dollar rebate will taste real good until you start getting your electric bills . It’s gonna hurt !
Green New Deal = Green New Scam
If the democrats tell you something it’s probably lie . They are good at it .
all you fools who jumped to install heat pumps are about to find out how expensive they really are. First, there is the electricity which is not going up regardless of how many fields become destructive solar farms, along with land and sea based windmills which kill anything that goes near them. Second, wait until you start having to get maintenance for these heat pumps. Get out that checkbook its going to cost you and you best be doing maintenance every year or it will really hit your pocket. Enjoy!!
And this affects the climate, how? It seems like the more the government tries to play God with the weather, the worse the weather gets.