Youth group, environmental organizations sue Maine for action on climate

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A youth organization and a pair of environmental groups are suing the state of Maine to try to force the state to reduce carbon emissions in the era of climate change.

Maine Youth Action, the Conservation Law Foundation and the Sierra Club filed their lawsuit on Friday in state court. The lawsuit says the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is under an “existing and ongoing statutory obligation” to reduce emissions and has failed to do so.

The lawsuit harkens back to a similar effort in Montana in which young environmentalists sued state officials for failing to do enough to protect them from climate change. Those activists scored a victory in August.

The Maine lawsuit says the state must enact new rules that cut emissions for cars and trucks to make good on promises made by the Maine Legislature.

“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, policy director of Maine Youth Action.

Representatives for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Maine governor’s office did not return to calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.

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The groups filing the lawsuit cited a climate plan released by the state that called for reductions in carbon emissions. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and the Maine Legislature created the Maine Climate Council in 2019 to help reach the state’s climate goals.

The council’s plan calls for the state to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030. Mills, who has made environmental protection a key piece of her time in office, said at the time that the goals were “ambitious, and they will not be achieved overnight, but we cannot and will not shy away from hard work to protect our state for future generations.”

The groups filing the lawsuit said progress on the climate plan has been too slow going. They cited the fact environmental regulators in the state decided in March not to adopt new standards to expand the use of electric cars.

The lawsuit states that the groups want the court to rule that Maine violated state law by failing to adopt the clean cars rules. It says the state must pass the rule “or an alternative rule that reduces emissions from the transportation sector” by Nov. 1.