AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine lawmakers mulling how to help coastal communities devastated by back-to-back storms this month are airing ideas that are shaped in part by partisan splits on climate change.
Heavy rain and strong winds brought destructive flooding and record high tides to coastal areas stretching from Down East to southern Maine, with parts of the state also receiving several inches of snow. Official damage totals for homes, businesses and lobster fishing infrastructure that the storms severely harmed are still unknown, though local officials have estimated millions in costs and described the damage as historically bad.
Lawmakers who returned to Augusta this month for a shortened session scheduled to end in April mentioned fairly general ideas to support Maine’s coast, where the large number of seasonal and vacant homes are not eligible for federal housing assistance.
Democrats who control the Legislature want to boost clean energy and climate resiliency investments for coastal communities, while Republicans wary of new programs and taxes are eyeing money from any budget surplus to create a relief fund. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said the state first wants to see how much federal funding is available for help.
The clock is ticking. Scientists expect more frequent and severe storms to create higher flood risks in Maine and other states over the next 30 years, and the recent storms dramatically eroded some of the natural and human-made barriers that protect coastal towns from the ocean. Maine’s double dose of storms also came amid several science agencies reporting this month that Earth shattered global heat records last year.
House Majority Leader Mo Terry, D-Gorham, said the storms “are a direct result of our changing climate” and highlighted past investments to “reduce our carbon emissions, increase clean energy production and invest in community resiliency and infrastructure adaptation grants.”
“Going forward, we must commit ourselves to furthering each of these initiatives and improving the state’s existing federal partnerships, because although we have made progress, these recent storms have showed that we must do more,” Terry said.
House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, a lobsterman, floated the idea of a disaster relief fund that would use money from a state budget surplus. John Bott, a spokesperson for House Republicans, said other members also want to support infrastructure initiatives over “new programs that raise taxes on everyday citizens.”
Mills is expected to release a budget proposal this month, and a revenue forecasting panel said late last year that the state may see nearly $265 million in extra revenue through 2025. On Friday, Mills said she first wants to find out federal funding availability for coastal communities, including assistance for the fishing industry.
“We don’t have a lot of money in the budget, but we’re going to do what we can to help people rebuild, the working waterfronts in particular,” Mills said. “There are entire communities depending on those.”
The January storms came less than a month after the Dec. 18 severe wind storm also brought flooding, widespread power outages and an estimated $20 million in damage to central and western Maine. Mills requested a federal disaster declaration from President Joe Biden for the December storm and may request another for January’s storms after a damage assessment.
Moving past the short-term needs of coastal communities, Maine’s long-term energy plans — ranging from offshore wind and electric vehicles to natural gas pipelines — are hardly uniting lawmakers. That was apparent Thursday, when the House passed a resolution over affirming the Legislature’s ongoing commitment to the Paris climate accord and curbing fossil fuel use.
During Thursday’s floor debate, Faulkingham said the Paris deal “handcuffs the United States,” while Rep. Michael Lemelin, R-Chelsea, falsely called climate change a “hoax.” Rep. Daniel Sayre, D-Kennebunk, brought up the coastal flooding in supporting the resolution and how business owners dealing with future uncertainty asked him “what are we doing now.”
Mills called a special meeting of the Maine Climate Council for Tuesday to discuss the recent storms and “how the state can strengthen its resilience to future extreme weather events,” her office said. The council must update the state’s four-year climate action plan by Dec. 1.
The current budget Mills signed last summer includes $7.5 million for a Maine Department of Transportation’s infrastructure fund that can support culverts at risk of washout, roads that flood during storms or coastal infrastructure vulnerable to increased storm surges. The Legislature has also directed $1 million to dam repairs, among other environmental-related spending.
Mills also established the Community Resilience Partnership in 2021, which has awarded nearly $6.1 million to help 103 towns, cities and tribal governments plan for and increase their resilience to the effects of climate change and reduce carbon emissions.
BDN writer Paul Koenig contributed to this story.
