AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Board of Environmental Protection voted Wednesday to defeat a rule requiring electric vehicles to make up an increasing percentage of new car sales over the coming years, instead expressing a desire for lawmakers to decide the issue.
The “Advanced Clean Cars II” rule that the board defeated in a 4-2 vote would have required battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to make up 51 percent of new car sales for 2028 models and 82 percent of new sales by model year 2032.
It would not have gone as far as California’s plan to end gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035 but directed the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to later review progress to determine if it should ultimately adopt that mandate. The plan would have put Maine among more than a dozen states to follow the nation’s largest state in pushing EV adoption.
Board members expressed some concerns about the rule while adding Maine cannot wait to meet its climate goals. Members like Bob Duchesne, a former Democratic lawmaker from Hudson who said he went “back and forth” on his decision, also did not buy every argument from opponents, such as that EVs will sit idle on dealership lots, but still opposed it.
“This is probably our best bet to try to do something consequential,” board member Steven Pelletier, a wetland scientist and forester from Topsham, said in regard to reducing emissions.
Pelletier and Barbara Vickery were the lone members to support adopting the rule, which the Natural Resources Council of Maine and several allies proposed earlier in 2023 through a little-known provision in state law allowing citizens to bypass the Legislature and ask agencies to adopt or change rules if at least 150 registered voters sign a petition.
Wednesday’s vote came amid the Democratic-controlled Legislature considering a late bill from Rep. Mike Soboleski, R-Phillips, that would classify the EV proposal and other new vehicle emission standards as “major substantive rules” that require legislative review before adoption. Republicans have mobilized against the set of rules rolled out last year.
The board’s decision will “really set us back from a climate perspective,” Josh Caldwell, the Natural Resources Council of Maine’s climate and clean energy coordinator, said, noting the state’s statutory goal of reducing emissions 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
But he said that whether Soboleski’s bill becomes law or not, the board still has final authority on the rules that proponents could put forward again as soon as next year.
“I worry that Maine is going to miss out on the available models that it would have otherwise had that now will be going to the 13 states that did adopt this rule,” Caldwell said. “Maine’s failure to do so today is really putting us behind on that front.”
Duchesne, who writes a birding column for the Bangor Daily News, told Soboleski — who spoke during the public comment period of Wednesday’s meeting before leaving for the State House — the rule “seems like something the Legislature is better able to deal with.” Board chair Susan Lessard, who is Bucksport’s town manager, said she hopes the Legislature takes it up.
Wednesday’s meeting also coincided with the U.S Environmental Protection Agency unveiling new automobile emissions standards meant to ramp up EV sales by 2032. Jeff Crawford, the Department of Environmental Protection’s air quality bureau director, called Maine’s rule stronger and a “good backstop” if the federal rule is never implemented.
DEP staff also noted the proposal included flexibility allowing manufacturers to bank credits and “overcomply” in other states to meet the mandate, which builds off of Maine’s rule in place since 2009 requiring zero-emission vehicles to make up 10 percent of sales.
The board vote was initially scheduled for December before getting postponed following that month’s wind and rain storm that caused mass power outages. The delay pushed the proposed effective date from model year 2027 to 2028 and forced adjustments related to that deadline.
The environmental protection board, whose seven members were each appointed or reappointed by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and confirmed by the Legislature, signaled support for the rule during an informal straw poll at an October meeting. Mills previously said she opposed copying California’s 2035 mandate for ending gas-powered vehicle sales.
EVs made up 6.7 percent of new vehicle sales in Maine by the third quarter of 2023, per an automotive alliance.
Emergency, off-road, rural postal carrier and military vehicles, along with rental vehicles with a final destination outside Maine, were exempt from the rule, which received minor tweaks and clarifications from department staff during the feedback process.
The board did not support a similar proposal aimed at ramping up sales of electric trucks. The Natural Resources Council of Maine and allies, including the Sierra Club and Conservation Law Foundation, said Maine would have become the 14th state to follow California’s lead on EV rules, joining New England neighbors Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island.
Supporters noted the rule would not affect used car sales nor require Mainers to give up existing gas-powered vehicles. They also argued Maine is expanding its charging infrastructure thanks in part to a $15 million federal grant the state received in January as EV prices fall.
The proposal resulted in more than 2,000 submitted public comments and a lengthy August board hearing during which environmentalists and Democrats in attendance argued the plan is needed to help reach Maine’s emissions-reduction goals. The transportation sector accounts for nearly half of the state’s emissions.
Republicans railed against “unelected bureaucrats” rather than lawmakers making the decision, while car dealers questioned whether the demand and infrastructure exists in Maine to support more EVs on the road, particularly during long winters or extreme storms. GOP lawmakers have sought to make the EV rules an election year issue.
The Maine Climate Council released updated figures in December showing 12,369 EVs on the road, about 3,000 more than 2022 but still a long way from the Mills administration’s goal of having 219,000 electric vehicles registered in the state by 2030.
