Mainers For Energy Choice. Protecting Your Right to Choose.
Energy Choice Is Your Choice
Don’t let someone else limit how you heat your home, fuel your vehicle and power your appliances
We don’t need to tell you Maine is a beautiful place with a hardworking, independent-minded population. We also don’t need to tell you that our winters can be pretty unforgiving. But that’s part of the reason that Mainers are built a little differently. When we’re faced with morning temperatures in the single digits or a blustery nor’easter, we don’t let it get in our way.
Part of being independent and and facing Mother Nature’s challenges how you choose to is being able to select the energy sources you need to get the job done. Last year, Maine’s legislature protected that choice with the passage of LD 556. This legislation prevented Maine municipalities from prohibiting any safe and commercially available energy choice. Let’s consider how this essential law has safeguarded your comfort, productivity and quality of life.
Your Choice of Effective Home Heating
Maine is among the top 10 coldest states. In our sometimes-frigid winter months, homeowners need to know they can count on their heating systems. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), more than half of all Maine homes use petroleum products — most commonly heating oil and propane — as their primary source of heat. Another 9% of our households heat with wood, and another 8% use natural gas.
While some Mainers are installing electric heating systems (about 11%, per the EIA), heat pumps that can maintain stable temperatures on the coldest winter nights are beyond the budgets of many homeowners.
You need to be able to choose the best heating source to keep your family safe — and the protections outlined in LD 556 do that.
Your Choice of Home Appliances
The right to choose your home’s energy sources extends beyond your heating equipment. In states where energy choice is being threatened, other popular home appliances may soon be unavailable to homeowners. These products include high-performance gas stoves, efficient gas and oil-fired water heaters and gas-powered dryers.
These products are safer, more efficient and greener than ever before. It should be your choice to decide if you want to install one in your home.
Your Choice of the Car Your Drive
In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in electric vehicles on our roadways.
You should have the ability to purchase an EV if it fits your needs and budget. By the same token, you shouldn’t be prevented from purchasing a traditionally fueled vehicle if that works best for you and your family. Limiting new vehicle purchases to EVs or plug-in hybrids is something we’ve seen in California and other states.
In 2004, an Advanced Clean Car II Act mandating that 82% of new vehicles sold in Maine be electric by 2032 came before the Maine Board of Environmental Protection and was thankfully voted down.
Last year, Maine’s legislature passed LD 556 to protect all Mainers’ right to choose any heating system, home appliance and vehicle that is safe, reliable and affordable for them. It’s important that LD 556 remain the law of the land.