AUGUSTA, Maine — After more than a year of discussions, members of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection voted down a program Wednesday that would have mandated electric vehicles in Maine.
"It becomes a little like Henry Ford and his Model T. You can get it in any color that you want, as long as it's black," Jeff Crawford of the Bureau of Air Quality said.
Proposed early 2023, the board met multiple times and received more than 2,800 public comments on the proposal since.
An informal "straw vote" late last year showed the board was in favor of the proposal, but discussion surrounded many uncertainties that ultimately led to voting it down.
Titled The Advanced Clean Cars II program—spearheaded by the state of California—would have required electric vehicles to make up 51 percent of new car sales starting in 2028, and increase to 82 percent of new sales by model year 2032 if adopted.
"If you want something different, you can buy something different. There isn't going to be as much available to you because 50 percent or eighty percent is going to be electric," Board Chair Susan Lessard said when pointing out the nature of the proposal.
But some drivers and state lawmakers previously questioned how the program would fit in Maine, and brought up concerns about the state's electrical grid and its strength to support the increased power demands.
Others criticized the board's authority to decide on a proposal and encouraged the decision to be made by state lawmakers.
"Mainers don't want unelected bureaucrats pushing aggressive EV mandates on them that they can't afford, and is policy driven, not market-driven," Rep. Regan Paul said. "Mainers want to choose the vehicle that best suits their needs."
A similar bill presented by Rep. Michael Soboleski would put the boards' recommendations on the electric vehicle mandate into place if the program comes into discussion in the future.
This vote comes on the same day the Biden Administration also announced stricter emissions limits for new cars, in hopes to encourage more to make the switch to EV.