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"Maine's pollution reduced by 15 percent since 2004, which is the year that in most states, pollution levels began to peak," said Katie Kokkinos of the advocacy group Environment Maine at a news conference this morning outside Portland City Hall.
Maine, however, is still going against the national trend, and she admits there's still a long way to go. "The transition to clean energy is a marathon and we've just laced up our sneakers."
The report she's referring to was a state-by-state study released by Environment Maine's parent organization, Environment America. It goes back to 1990, and finds that overall emissions nationally increased by 19 percent between 1990 and 2007. Maine, meanwhile, saw its emissions rise by five percent over this period.
Between '04 and '07, however, things improved, and 17 states saw declines in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use. Texas reported the largest drop in emissions, but Maine experienced the biggest percentage decline. "More than one third of the state succeeded in cutting pollution from 2004 to 2007, and this is right before the onset of the economic recession, Kokkinos says.
This, she says, proves that robust economic growth and emissions reductions can occur side by side. "For example, four northeast states -- Connecticut, Massachusetts, Delaware, and New York -- all since the year 1997, decreased their global warming pollution by 5 percent while increasing their gross state product by 65 percent."
"I think we're finally at the point where people seem to get the concept of energy efficiency -- it's no longer reserved just for people wearing Birkenstocks and pony tails," says Adam Lee, President of Lee Automalls and Chairman of the Efficiency Maine Trust, a quasi-governmental agency created last year by the state Legislature to try and meet the state's energy problems and challenges, he says.
"In the past year alone, the Efficiency Maine business program has helped 690 Maine businesses complete more than 900 energy efficiency projects, with a total savings of over $54 million in electricity not used," Lee says.
"There's some evidence we're moving in the right direction in some parts of the country." says Dylan Voorhees, Clean Energy Project Director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. "The national picture is still troublingand means we have a lot to do, but I think it's great that Maine seems to be moving in the right direction."
While Voorhees welcomes the direction Maine, and other states, appear to be moving in, he says that's not entirely due to green policy initiatives. "Looking at relatively short-time horizons, these numbers are impacted by the weather and economic conditions, and don't necessarily indicate we're doing everything we need to be doing to be reducing emissions."
A combination of warmer winters and higher oil prices, he says, led to people either not burning as much fossil fuel, or seeking alternatives to oil, like cleaner-burning natural gas. The impact of the recession, he adds, may also bring down carbon emissions - but we'll have to wait until the next report comes out in two years time to find out for sure.
The state Legislature has set the goal of returning to 1990 emissions levels in Maine by 2010. After this latest report, says, Voorhees, this aim now looks achievable.
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