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Climate change caused by global warming is the greatest environmental threat of our generation. The world’s scientists overwhelmingly agree that we must take immediate action to dramatically reduce global carbon dioxide (CO2) levels on a sustained basis over the next few decades in order to stabilize the climate.

Maine has long been among the leaders in the effort to cut CO2 emissions, but a recent proposal to build a 2 million ton-per-year coal gasification power plant and diesel refinery in Wiscasset has revealed a major loophole in our state laws: despite its role as the primary pollutant causing climate change, CO2 is still not regulated as an air pollutant.

• Maine’s new global warming law, RGGI, establishes a cap and trade program to limit CO2 emissions from a 12-state region, but only for the electrical sector.
• Even with RGGI, under current cap levels there are enough surplus allowances to allow for construction of one or more major new coal power plants in the RGGI region.
• There are no CO2 limits for gasification facilities or refineries.

CO2 Emission Standards Would Prevent Maine from Moving Backwards on Global Warming

• Coal is the most carbon intensive of all the fossil fuels. Coal gasification (or combustion) emits 45 percent more CO2 than natural gas, and 22 percent more CO2 than oil to create the same amount of energy.
• The proposed Twin River Energy Center in Wiscasset would have emitted 5.4 million tons of CO2 per year – which is:
  • Greater than all other electrical power plants in Maine combined, and
  • Almost double the CO2 emissions of any other industrial facility in the state (the next closest, SAPPI’s Somerset paper mill, pumped out 2.8 million tons of CO2 in 2005).
• Diesel from the proposed coal gasification plant in Wiscasset would release twice as much CO2 into the atmosphere as diesel made from petroleum.
• In November, Wiscasset voters rejected a zoning referendum, blocking the Twin River Energy Center for now, but the developer has vowed to seek another vote.

LD 2126 Would Establish CO2 Emission Standards for New Gasification Facilities or Power Plants

• LD 2126 would require the Maine Board of Environmental Protection to establish, within 18 months, strict new CO2 emission standards for gasification facilities and for new power plants that exceed 25 MW in capacity.
• In the interim, LD 2126 would require that CO2 emissions from gasification facilities and major new power plants be no greater than emissions from existing technologies, such as natural gas power plants and petroleum refineries.
• LD 2126 encourages industry to develop means to capture and sequester CO2 to reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses.