We Defeated LD 434!
This bill would have put a 40 cents-per gallon tax on heating oil and gasoline and other carbon-based fuels by 2027, giving the money to CMP and Emera to use for “rebates.”
A huge THANK YOU from MPBP to all the people who came out Feb. 28 to testify and to attend the Carbon Tax bill, LD 434, hearing at Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee hearing, and ALL those who could not attend but emailed the committee or sent very personal testimonies!! IT WAS A WIN FOR MAINE’S HARDWORKING PEOPLE.
Many groups joined together to unite for a common cause: Maine People Before Politics, Restore Maine’s Future, Free Maine Campaign, Patriot PAC, and the Maine Republican Party. We filled the room and an overflow room with Mainers who let the committee know that Maine people would be hurt by a 40 cent tax on home heating oil, gasoline, propane, kerosene and other fuels that would be sent to CMP and Emera.
OUR VOICES WERE HEARD! The bill’s sponsor, at the hearing, offered an amendment that would gut the bill and replace it with a study. MPBP opposed the study. At the work session, the committee voted unanimously that the bill Ought Not To Pass, effectively killing the bill.
The original bill was designed to decrease Mainer’s use of carbon-based fuels like heating oil, gasoline, diesel, and kerosene by putting a tax on a gallon of fuel that will be passed on to the consumer. The tax is by “carbon content” of the fuel and is equivalent to about 5 cents per gallon of fuel in the first year of the tax. It increases each year, starting in 2021-22 at 5 cents a gallon until reaching the full tax of 40 cents a gallon in 2027-28.
It is laudable to protect the environment, but the bill as printed would have imposed too great a cost on Maine’s people, especially our elderly on fixed incomes, our businesses and our commuters. Forty cents a gallon is too high a price to pay—on top of our gas tax—to fill your car or to heat your home in the winter. Furthermore, directing the money to the utilities that transmit and deliver electricity is not returning the funds to the people who are paying this tax out of pocket.
The work session where the Committee will vote on whether to pass or not pass the bill as written or to adopt the amendment to make it a study will be held Thursday, March 7, 2019, at 1 p.m. at the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee. You can contact the committee members and let them know your thoughts on this bill or on the study.
LD 434 An Act To Price Carbon Pollution in Maine
Sponsored by Representative Rykerson of Kittery. Cosponsored by Senator Miramant of Knox and Representatives: Fay of Raymond, Terry of Gorham, Tucker of Brunswick.