S7E1 Climate Resilience in Maine: Protecting Communities and Infrastructure
On this episode, we feature a special host, Nicole Leblanc, who is a writer for our podcast. This episode focuses on climate resilience, Maine’s efforts toward clean energy and transportation, and Maine’s climate change infrastructure and will have two segments. The first will feature a one-on-one interview with Chief Engineer for the Maine Department of Transportation Joyce Taylor. The second segment will feature a panel with Sarah Curran, Judy East, and Samantha Horn.
Resources
Maine Climate Resilience Grant
Transcript
Transcript: S7E1 Climate Resilience in Maine: Protecting Communities and Infrastructure
[00:00:00] Judy East: With this attention to civic space, it can really reduce our overall transportation emissions. And in my experience, some of Maine’s most dynamic communities are walkable, this vibrant mix of social and economic activity.
[00:00:20] Eric Miller: Hello, and welcome back to Maine Policy Matters, the official podcast of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine, where we discuss the policy matters that are most important to Maine’s people and why Maine Policy Matters at the local, state, and national levels. My name is Eric Miller, and I’ll be your host. And today I’m actually joined by our intern and writer on the show, Nicole Leblanc.
Hello, welcome.
[00:00:46] Nicole LeBlanc: Hi, thank you for having me.
[00:00:48] Eric Miller: Yeah, you’re on the front lines now. And I would love for you to kind of introduce your background because you not only write, but you have several other interests and skills that you bring to the show.
[00:01:02] Nicole LeBlanc: Sure. So I am a third year undergrad student at UMaine, and I’ve been a writer for Maine Policy Matters for a year and a half now. I am hosting this episode for my interests in climate resilience.
I worked with the DEP briefly last summer, and I helped them write their climate resilience workbook, the second version of that. And that really inspired me to take on more climate resilience topics, and I made some cool connections through that as well. And it led to this episode being recorded, and I had a great time doing it.
[00:01:39] Eric Miller: That’s awesome. It’s so fun to use your original academic interests or background, and then that kind of will allow you to step into another world, like the environmental subject, and then to kind of get captured by that. It’s been fun to watch.
So I guess take it away, Nicole.
[00:02:00] Nicole LeBlanc: Today’s episode is part one of a two-part series on climate resilience action in Maine. A series of devastating and unprecedented storms in late 2023 and early 2024 caused $90 million in damage to infrastructure and communities and claimed four lives. Some of the hardest hit areas of the state included rural communities that lacked enough funding, capacity for guiding and implementing recovery projects.
To prepare for the likelihood of more climate impacts like these, urgent resilience efforts are imperative to help communities adapt to climate change and mitigate its hazardous effects going into the future. Resilience here in Maine means supporting Maine communities to prepare for, respond, and recover from climate impacts like severe storm events. It also means making it as easy as possible for communities to access the technical assistance and grants that are available to assess potential climate risks and ensure they have the essentials to respond. On November 21st, 2024, Governor Mills met with the Maine Climate Council to unveil their updated four-year climate action plan, Maine Won’t Wait. Work on the updated plan kicked off in a special meeting in January, and from there the Council and its working groups began the work of evaluating dozens of new strategies to update the state’s climate action plan for the next four years. The success of the Maine Climate Council is hugely due to the network of partnerships across Maine.
Regional planning organizations, nonprofits, regional collaboratives, and many others exist in partnership with each other and with the state government in an all-hands-on-deck approach. These partnerships are only effective if they reach all people in Maine, which is why engagement with community leaders and town stakeholders is a number one priority, especially with populations who have greater challenges accessing information and programs. Maine Won’t Wait has connected these partnerships to local governments and pushed forward Maine’s momentum to address the escalating effects of climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and ensure that climate programs, investments, and action benefit all people in Maine.
Now on to our interview with Joyce Taylor. This episode focuses on climate resilience, Maine’s efforts toward clean energy and transportation and Maine’s climate change infrastructure, and we’ll have two segments. The first will feature a one-on-one interview with Chief Engineer for the Maine Department of Transportation, Joyce Taylor.
The second segment will feature a panel with Sarah Curran, Judy East, and Samantha Horn. Joyce Noel Taylor is the Chief Engineer for the Maine Department of Transportation. She joined the department in 1999 and has risen through the ranks holding several key positions.
Chief Engineer Taylor first worked in the construction division as its environmental engineer and held various positions, including Bureau Director of Project Development before becoming Chief Engineer in 2013. She has worked on various high-profile department projects, most recently heading the Sarah Mildred Long Project between Maine and New Hampshire. Joyce Noel Taylor was the first President of Maine’s Chapter of Women in Transportation.
She’s Vice Chair of the Council of Highways and Streets of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. She co-chairs the Climate Council’s Transportation Working Group, as well as serving on the Maine Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers. Now on to our interview with Joyce Taylor.
Thank you for being here and welcome.
[00:05:11] Joyce Taylor: You’re welcome.
[00:05.12] Nicole LeBlanc: How has the general thought process behind road planning and infrastructure evolved over time, particularly for larger structures like Causeways?
[00:05:23] Joyce Taylor: I think in general, about a decade ago, Maine DOT was beginning to see a pattern of losing culverts in particular, or larger culverts, and so we decided to upsize our design standards to bigger storm events. So we went from a 25-year storm to an 100-year storm event, where culverts carrying streams, rivers, and then we decided to do the same for bridges. So we had started doing some amount of planning a while ago.
We are looking at Causeways right now. We have eight projects that are in preliminary design, where we’re looking at, you know, what do we have to do? Do we have to raise them up four feet to meet those sea level rise projections that are coming out of the Climate Council Science and Technical Working Group?
Do we have openings in those? What does that do for flooding downstream property? These are really complex when you are trying to pass more water, but you have tidal water that can go up and flood people who’ve never been flooded before.
So it’s pretty complex when you start to think about how you have to look at all of the impacts. And the reality is, while you may be returning some flows back to natural conditions, there are people that live there now, there are people that are
impacted. And so we have to look at, you know, what those impacts mean.
[00:06:54] Nicole LeBlanc: I’m assuming that it’s also difficult in changing on an assessment level because of the changing nature of weather events as well.
[00:07:04] Joyce Taylor: Right. I think we can’t plan for some of the storm events we’ve seen. The one that we had December 18th was basically a 500- year storm event in western Maine according to our numbers. And you’re not going to be able to design your way out of that kind of storm. So one of the things that we need to look at or we’re starting to look at is really the highway system instead of just looking at one culvert or one bridge. You know, we had a lot of roads that were blown out and washed out.
So the connectivity for some communities like Farmington and Rumford wasn’t there. And they also lead to more rural areas. And so there were places cut off.
A power company couldn’t get to people to hook up their power. So one of the things that we’ve talked about is really looking at our system, especially in Western Maine and some of the more vulnerable areas and thinking about that kind of emergency response and the vulnerability of that road to be washed out. And we’ve never really rebuilt a road before because it was going to flood.
But I think it’s something that we’re beginning to talk about and think about. I would say that what is very difficult with these causeway projects or any project that’s basically a new alignment where you’re moving a road, there are environmental regulations that were set up for good reasons because back in the day, people were blowing through wetlands and they were destroying them at unprecedented rates. And so we have all these wetland regulations.
We have lots of regulations around all kinds of things. But nobody in government at the federal level and really even at the state level, has really sat down and said, how do we prioritize resilience and resilience projects, an emergency response with environmental regulations? And so there are things around sand dunes.
Sand dunes are very protective. But for us to raise some of these causeways, we will probably have to impact a sand dune. Right now, it’s virtually not allowed.
So we’re not sure how to go forward with some of our projects. So there’s going to have to be some really thoughtful
conversation, I think moving forward about the trade-offs when you’re trying to protect certain things, but yet they’re going to be inundated and they’re going to be gone. You know, how do you prioritize the regulations?
[00:09:41] Nicole LeBlanc: Sure. I think the conversations part of that seems to be essential. The collaboration part of that, I feel like that’s a big point of tension in terms of how do you navigate the regulations that you have to work within and still have causeways that can withstand future weather events.
So it sounds like a tough thing to navigate.
[00:10:02] Joyce Taylor: Yeah. I mean, and even say you have a bridge project that’s in an old village. We have so many old villages in this state, especially on the coast.
And we’ve had circumstances where we will impact historical properties if we go up four feet and go out. And then people in town don’t want to see us, you know, take a property that might be historic or take a property that’s been there a long time in order to go higher up with a structure. So I think we’re still, as a state, not entirely ready to have these conversations.
We frankly just have not had enough damage that it’s forcing that conversation to be more urgent.
[00:10:41] Nicole LeBlanc: That’s an interesting point because you don’t want it to get
worse.
[00:10:43] Joyce Taylor: No, no, that’s the trouble is, you know, you certainly don’t want it to get worse, but yet we forget very easily those of us who maybe were impacted compared to the people who were impacted, especially by those December, January storms. But that’s the first time in a really long time since tropical storm Irene that the state was hit in such a large geographic way. So it’s been a long time since we had seen, you know, that size of an event around the state.
We’ve had other really localized events where people have been flooded or had impacts. But those three storm events really, I think, kind of woke up a lot of people. But how do we stay awake to it?
How do we keep having the conversation? How do we plan before we’re in crisis?
[00:11:31] Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah, that’s a fantastic segue into sort of my next question is, what are the lessons that we can draw from past weather events that might guide us in future infrastructure assessment and planning? How can we make those lessons stick, kind of like what you are saying?
[00:11:49] Joyce Taylor: I think one of the lessons we learned, as I mentioned, we lost roads. Roads got washed out by small streams that became very big streams and flowage. We did not lose a bridge.
That was great. We didn’t lose a culvert that had been sized for the larger storms. So it tells me to a certain extent that some of our modern design standards are probably pretty good. But I think we need to look at, there are key roads along rivers in particular on that western Maine that we probably have to go in and assess, are the culverts big enough? Are the ditches big enough? Does the road have to be a little bit higher?
What are the impacts to a community if they’re shut off for two days because that road got washed out? So I think we have to do a little bit of planning in terms of assessing certain corridors and take a look at what that looks like from an emergency preparedness point of view because the reality is EMS, the power companies can’t get anywhere to help people if they can’t use a road to get there. So I think that that’s something from, especially, the December storm, that we’ve had a little bit of a heightened awareness that we’ve never really talked about raising roads in western Maine.
So, you know, certainly the sea level rises up, it gets all the attention or it gets a lot of air in the room, if you will, when you come to talk about climate. But I think western Maine is frankly where I worry more in terms of the infrastructure system taking a huge hit. So I think in terms of infrastructure, certainly, you know, the working waterfronts really got hit hard.
But I’m not talking about that in this context.
[00:13:36] Nicole LeBlanc: In my experience, my limited experience, it seems like infrastructure in western Maine versus, like you said, coastal areas, western Maine, rural Maine doesn’t get enough attention.
[00:13:46] Joyce Taylor: Right.
[00:13:47] Nicole LeBlanc: With, you know, the damage.
[00:13:49] Joyce Taylor: Yeah, in Aroostook County, I mean, we’ve had issues over the years. That’s where, in part, when we decided to change some of our design standards on culvert sizing and bridge sizing, because we were having these localized storm events up in Aroostook County, parts of western Maine, and we were losing infrastructure. And, you know, in some of those places, it’s long detours.
So it’s a really big, huge impact to people who are impacted by those long detours. So that’s something that I think we are looking a little bit harder at those areas.
[00:14:24] Nicole LeBlanc: For my own curiosity, ideally, how would you want to see broader collaboration between the local and state level?
[00:14:33] Joyce Taylor: I think that the state, through the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation in the future, GO-PIV, has a Community Resilience Partnership program. And they’ve been doing a great job working with the locals to assess, in some cases, you know, vulnerable infrastructure that could include Maine DOT infrastructure. And so there’s an opportunity for us to have a conversation.
And I think we are having many conversations with communities who are reaching out, asking us, you know, what are your plans for this bridge or this culvert or this road? This is important to us, you know. So I think some of that is starting, which is really good.
I think that there has been this opportunity to fund some culvert replacements. DEP had a program sponsored by the legislature. We have given out some money.
It gives the towns an opportunity to work on their culvert sizing. So I think that that kind of funding of grants just to give communities some seed money to start the conversations has been really helpful.
[00:15:39] Nicole LeBlanc: I’m interested in addition to all of that, what other challenges do you see for engineers when planning resilient transportation infrastructure?
[00:15:50] Joyce Taylor: It’s funny because I think that engineering is the easy part. People are always the hard part, right? Because people have opinions, they have thoughts, and they don’t necessarily agree on their priorities.
And almost every single one of these resilience projects I’ve been involved in has been complicated because many times, especially the coastal causeway projects, you have folks who want us to open up the causeway and it could flood hundreds of acres back. And impact people’s homes and their ability to live somewhere. But yet, you know, they really want to see that for the wetland restoration benefits and the flooding capacity, you know, to be able to hold that water, right, where it always used to be versus holding it back.
And they’re just complicated conversations to have with people because even if we’re going to flood one home, are we really ready as a state, I think, to take people’s property in the name of resilience? So I think that’s something that we’re grappling with as engineers because designing a culvert or a bridge or a causeway or a road isn’t really that difficult. It’s the impacts you have because to go to a bigger bridge, a bigger culvert, a taller road, all of that stuff means you’re having more impacts. When you get bigger, you have more impacts to surrounding property. And so I think that is the conundrum that we face right now we’re having these conversations project by project or site by site because as I mentioned, there really isn’t enough forum to be able to have it holistically at a higher level right now.
[00:17:32] Nicole LeBlanc: Sure. And even you brought up affecting historical sites. There are so many different things that are affected that people want to have a say in that and I didn’t even think of that. So that makes a lot of sense. That actually is another good segue into my next question in terms of juggling different groups of people. How might the future population growth and impact infrastructure planning, especially as more people are considering moving to Maine for climate-related reasons?
[00:18:02] Joyce Taylor: I think that we’re fortunate in Maine in that our road system really isn’t congested. You get a little bit of congestion in the Portland area, especially on Interstate 295 at times. But with the telework, since post-pandemic, it’s evened out some of that traffic.
I think you’re going to see that there will be, with the ability to telework, more pressure on the rural areas for people to live. I think one of the things that we as a state are going to have to be careful of is not allowing development with people moving into the state in low-lying areas, in areas that could be flooded. From an infrastructure point of view, I’m not sure that the population growth is necessarily going to be a big issue from the resilience point of view.
I mean, from a greenhouse gas emissions point of view, certainly encouraging EVs, encouraging people to drive vehicles that get better gas mileage, cutting back on emissions. So, we’re doing our part in reducing that pollution, which I think is really an important step.
[00:19:14] Nicole LeBlanc: Absolutely. There’s so many parts of that, especially going back to climate resilience. And you co-chair the Maine Climate Council’s transportation working group.
And this is something I’m particularly interested in. The Climate Council is set to deliver the state’s updated climate action plan by December 1st. And I wanted to know what roles, many things, I’m sure, Maine DOT plays in climate resilience and adaptation in the transportation sector as part of the Climate Council’s plan.
[00:19:46] Joyce Taylor: Yeah, I think we have a strong role because really, you know, our road system is sort of the spine of Maine, if you will, that people count on. And again, you know, we oftentimes, our Maine DOT employees are the very first emergency response people because we have to get the roads clear to be able to get everybody else out on the roads during an emergency. So we play sort of an emergency role.
But also, I think from the Climate Council plans, I mean, we have been administering grant money that we’ve been given. We’ve had a number of rounds now for the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund. It’s going to, basically, locals.
So we’ve been helping get that money out the door to be able to work with locals, to be able to work on their resilience issues. I think every single project that we have right now at Maine DOT, we are looking at the resilience angle, whether a culvert is bigger, a bridge is bigger, whether a road needs to be raised, and just looking at drainage and paying attention to that, and trying to make sure that we are watching our footprint on this. So I think that we touch a lot of land in the state with our road system, and we convey a lot of water.
We probably touch more water than any other landowner in the state when you think about it. So I think we have a really big role in making sure that we’re responsive to these issues and that we’re not causing more issues.
[00:21:25] Nicole LeBlanc: Absolutely. I think the state to local connection is huge here, especially with GO-PIF. Like you said, they do a good job with giving the funds, the resources to the local governments to do what they think that their town needs.
My question for that would be, do you think that that’s slowly improving with the climate plan that’s coming up?
[00:21:49] Joyce Taylor: I do. I think that we’ve been able to take action. The reality is, the first climate plan, we didn’t know if we would have any money to do anything, and then some money did become available through bipartisan infrastructure law.
So there was money to help there. The legislature has appropriated some funding. So I think that the planning piece and having the local communities voluntarily look at their areas and start to work with various people, their stakeholders.
Yeah, I do think it’s improving. I think people are taking a hard look at what needs to happen and trying to figure it out. So I think more people are getting to the design stage of replacing things, not just the planning stage.
So that’s good. That’s kind of new. And I think with this money that we’ve been able to get out the door, is helping people actually do some projects.
I get pictures of before and after, and you’re seeing some pretty cool projects of culverts that have been replaced that were blocking fish, had very little ability to flow water through, have blown out before and passed storms, and now they’re much bigger culverts and they’re passing fish, and they can pass storm events. So yeah, there’s definitely, I think, some stuff happening at the local level. That’s good news.
[00:23:12] Nicole LeBlanc: Absolutely. Those before and after photos sound really satisfying and also gratifying.
[00:23:17] Joyce Taylor: Yeah, yeah. It’s good for the towns. I mean, so many towns in Maine are just based on volunteers.
Volunteers put in these applications. They oversee these projects, and, you know, it’s good to be able to see them get some of this work done.
[00:23:32] Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah, that’s amazing. Well, that comes to the end of my questions for you. Thank you so much for taking the time today. Appreciate it.
Now, on to our panel guests’ introductions. Sarah Curran is Deputy Director, Climate Planning and Community Partnerships with the Government Office of Policy Innovation in the Future. In this role, she leads climate policy planning and climate-related programs to support Maine communities.
Before GOPIF, Sarah worked for the Maine Development Foundation, where she served as Program Director for Forest Opportunity Roadmap, collaborative effort by industry and community stakeholders to strengthen and grow Maine’s forest products industry and reinvest in rural communities impacted by recent mill closures. Sarah has extensive community and economic development experience working with Maine communities and non-profit organizations. Judy East is Director of the Bureau of Resource Information and Land Use Planning, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
East has 35 years of experience in land use and infrastructure planning at local, regional, and state levels in New York and New England, with a particular understanding of the needs of rural communities. She currently serves as co-chair of the Community Resilience Working Group, the Maine Climate Council, and as Commissioner Beals’ designee on the Governor’s Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission. Samantha Horn is the Director for the new Maine Office of Community Affairs.
Horn has three decades of experience in policy, planning, and science, and prior to leading the Maine Office of Community Affairs, consulted on public, stakeholder engagement, policy work, and planning and siting for development projects. Before starting her consulting business, she was the Director of Science for the Nature Conservancy in Maine and worked in state natural resource agencies for nearly 20 years, including more than a decade in leadership roles in the Maine Use Planning Commission. All right.
Thank you all so much for being here. Sarah, we’ll start with you. How do you define climate resilience in your role and how does it shape the work that you do?
[00:25:33] Sarah Curran: Thanks so much for having us, Nicole. I think what I would start with is just acknowledging that Maine is already experiencing the impacts of climate change. So we see more frequent storms, rising sea levels, we see drought and flooding, and so we already are experiencing the impacts of climate change that are threatening our residents, our communities, our economy.
We had some really devastating storms last year, both along the coast and inland that really drove home for a lot of people, I think, the realization of their lives now. And what we saw is that some of the communities, many of the communities that were hardest hit are communities that have sort of limited capacity for projects to recover for the impacts that they experienced and to plan for the next storms that will be coming. And so when I think about resilience, I think about sort of how we support communities to plan for future events like that, to prepare for events, and then to recover.
And an example of that is in 2021, Governor Mills launched the Community Resilience Partnership, which is a grants program for Maine communities that provides grants for local climate resilience and clean energy priorities. And we now have more than 225 communities across the state participating in the grant program, and we’ve awarded more than $9 million in grants for those local climate resilience projects.
[00:27:00] Nicole LeBlanc: That’s fantastic and a great start. Judy, if you would like to jump in.
[00:27:05] Judy East: Well, I’ll just underline what Sarah said by letting everyone know that the geographic distribution of these awards is really impressive. It’s coastal, up and down the coast, where they say Kittery Eastport, I’m not sure if Eastport has one, but you know what I mean, as well as inland communities and in the northern part of the state. So, there’s a really broad distribution of this support and it’s growing.
[00:27:30] Nicole LeBlanc: That’s amazing. Samantha, if you want to also add in on your definition of climate resilience in your role.
[00:27:39] Samantha Horn: In my work, climate resilience means making it as easy as possible for communities to get that technical assistance and the grants that they need and that are available. They make their own decisions about what they need to do to prepare for the future. I’m really thinking from that community perspective. So, for me, people and communities have essentials they need for health and safety and that the community can thrive even when it’s hit with climate impacts. As we know, the well-being of people is linked with the natural world around us. So that means taking care of our natural resources, as well as our people.
And in my work, Climate Resilience means making it as easy as possible for communities to get that technical assistance and the grants that they need and that are available as they make their own decisions about what they need to do to prepare for the future.
[00:28:25] Nicole LeBlanc: I’m really hearing a lot of community partnerships from all three of your roles. That’s a huge thing is assistance to local communities. And that’s what really makes me hopeful for the work that all of your departments are doing.
I want to ask about clean energy as well, and sustainable transportation as key components of Maine’s climate strategy, as well as infrastructure. What role do these sectors play in enhancing the state’s overall climate resilience, Sarah?
[00:28:59] Sarah Curran: I’m glad that you’re asking about transportation and energy. The state’s climate action plan includes strategies both to reduce our emissions and to become more resilient to climate impacts. And when we think about reducing our emissions, 80% of Maine’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are from our transportation and building sectors.
And so electrifying those sectors and transitioning to renewable energy is really critical to how we reduce our emissions and combat climate change. But those strategies also have really important resilience benefits. And so one of the things that’s great about heat pumps, for example, is that as we’re experiencing increasingly warm summer temperatures, heat pumps offer not only an efficient way to heat homes, but also to cool them.
And we’ve seen examples of electric vehicle batteries being used as energy storage in a storm event. So there’s some really nice resilience opportunities and many of the strategies that are in the plan to reduce our emissions in these sectors. And the other thing I want to highlight is just our reliance on fossil fuels and how that means that we export billions of dollars to out-of-state foreign gas and oil companies every year. And so if affordability is a really important priority for the Climate Council, and when we think about switching to clean, renewable energy sources, that not only reduces the predictability of pricing and reduces the… Or increases the predictability and reduces the volatility of pricing. So it helps with the affordability, but it also helps make our grid more resilient in those kinds of storm events. And so it both reduces our emissions and increases our resilience to climates.
[00:30:41] Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah, that is really interesting how there are so many small solutions and so many big solutions that are maybe under-discussed or not as known, like heat pumps and other things like that. Judy, if you want to keep going with that?
[00:30:59] Judy East: I would add to the conversation that land use decisions that communities make have a big role to play in this combination of both reducing emissions and being resilient. Because compact development has, say, a mixture of housing, retail and office options, combined with civic institutions like schools and post offices and where you pay your taxes, they can offer people the ability to walk to work, take their kids to the park, go to school without actually getting into their vehicles. I mean, they also interact with neighbors.
There’s a community building aspect to that kind of compact development that is attractive. We still need to drive to many places. But, this attention to civic space, it can really reduce our overall transportation emissions.
And in my experience, some of Maine’s most dynamic communities are walkable. This vibrant mix of social and economic activity.
[00:31:59] Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah, that is incredible just for the amount of benefits that are reaped just for the community and for the environment. And they complement each other really elegantly. Samantha, if you want to add anything?
[00:32:14] Samantha Horn: Well, I guess I just tag on to Judy’s discussion that land use can really be impactful in ways that might not be obvious to folks that saves emissions. But it also keeps Maine in a lot of ways because we have a lot of natural spaces that are important to climate resilience, important for emission reduction by absorbing carbon. But it also just makes Maine a really wonderful place to live.
And so doing the development we need to do in small, compact patterns keeps us from having to spread out into some of those places that we really are important to all of us as people in Maine.
[00:32:52] Nicole LeBlanc: I already love the community aspect of it is so, so important.
And that’s a great segue into my third question. Community input and participation are critical to successful climate adaptation. What strategies have you seen work well or necessary to connect communities in Maine for resilient assessment and planning? And specifically, I’m curious, I’m so excited to hear about the four year Maine climate plan. Maine won’t wait. Samantha, we’ll go back to you.
[00:33:20] Samantha Horn: Okay, thanks. So yeah, community input and participation, if in Maine, that’s just, it’s huge. It’s what’s making a big difference. We’re lucky to have a network of organizations that are dedicated to helping communities with resilience planning and project implementation. There are so many organizations that are stepping up and doing the hard work. It’s one of the key reasons we have made such great progress.
And each of those organizations come at projects with a slightly different approach, which makes the whole thing work since a fishing community on the coast has really different needs from communities in the Western Mountains and regional planning organizations. They’re a great partner in nonprofits, regional collaboratives and others. They exist in partnership with each other and with the state government.
And it’s that all hands on deck approach that’s really making such a difference right now.
[00:34:09] Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah, that’s really important, especially acknowledging that different communities have widely ranging different needs and being able to understand that and still be able to partner effectively. I will ask Sarah to continue on with that.
[00:34:24] Sarah Curran: So the state climate action plan includes hundreds of volunteers who participate both, you know, there’re 39 members of the Maine Climate Council who helped to draft the climate action plan. There’s more than 250 members of the working groups and subcommittees that support the work of the council and help to develop the strategies that are in the plan. And then we had thousands of Maine people participate in workshops around the state, in events and surveys and provide feedback and input on the strategies in the state climate action plan.
And so I think it’s really important to acknowledge how important community engagement is at the local level and also at the state climate action planning level. And I think one of the things that you’ll see in the update to the state’s climate action plan is a real emphasis on ensuring that the benefits of climate programs and climate action reach all Maine people across the state.
And so looking for opportunities to partner with organizations, to partner with communities, to make sure that folks, especially people who have greater challenges accessing information and programs, that they have access to the state climate programs and that the actions benefit all Maine people.
[00:35:34] Nicole LeBlanc: I’m curious, how many working groups did you say were involved in Maine-Won’t-Wait?
[00:35:39] Sarah Curran: Yeah. So there are six sector-specific working groups. So there is a transportation working group, buildings, energy.
There’s a working group for natural working lands, a working group for coastal and marine, and one for community resilience. And so those working groups are all comprised of a mix of people with expertise and experience in that sector. And so they helped develop the recommendations that the Council deliberated on to incorporate into the Climate Action Plan.
In addition, we also have two subcommittees. We have a Science and Technical Subcommittee that did an incredible job looking at the latest science and then compiling an assessment of climate impacts in Maine that really forms the foundation of the Climate Council’s work. And then we have an Equity Subcommittee, which is really focused on, as I was describing, making sure that the benefits of climate action reach all people in Maine.
And so we have the working groups, the subcommittees, and then we also had this time a couple of cross-sector task forces. So we had a couple areas in the plan where we wanted to go deeper. And so there were task forces that were really focused on land use and on materials management and waste management.
So we had hundreds of people participating in the climate action planning process over the last year to develop the strategies for the updated climate action plan.
[00:37:02] Nicole LeBlanc: That’s honestly incredible how many different working groups there are. And I can’t imagine how fast the year must have went by to coordinate all of those actions, plans, working groups and subcommittees, especially the equity subcommittee, which I really am glad that that is made a priority. Yeah. Judy. I’ll send it off to you.
[00:37:23] Judy East: I actually just want to shout out GO-PIF staff because with all of that input from all of those working groups and public input, they had to pull a lot of material together to come up with a final draft and I think they did an excellent job. I’ll just touch on this notion of community input and participation and support for communities. Sarah mentioned the Community Resilience Partnership.
Not only do they provide grants to individual communities, but also to regional service providers. And they’re the ones who help communities just with the assistance they need to get started including the engagement of the community. And so through that partnership, communities gain access to opportunities to learn from one another, you know, what works, how to overcome challenges, including training and peer learning and networking, regionally and statewide.
And I just want to also do a shout out to a recent story map that GOPIF launched, I think just last week. What it provides is the location, photos, stories, and so on of communities who are in the partnership, the Community Resilience Partnership. So it’s just a really great resource for other communities, or people who are new to the process to find out what they have done, what worked, and how a town looking to engage in this work might get started.
So I think you have notes at the end. You may include the story map in your notes. That would be a great resource.
[00:38:47] Nicole LeBlanc: Absolutely. I love when we, when the podcast is able to include links from the episode for our listeners, because just as a listener, I love learning more. So we’ll be able to do that.
And also, I think it’s great the regional service providers are a part of that planning because it’s just like an efficient way of shouldering below and actually talking to people from that community and letting them figure out what they need and what they want to do.
[00:39:14] Judy East: Absolutely. I love that. Efficient way to carry the load. You nailed it.
[00:39:18] Nicole LeBlanc: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I want to go a little more in depth. And for the fourth question and ask, how does Maine balance addressing immediate climate hazards such as extreme weather impacts with investing in long-term adaptation and mitigation strategies like infrastructure upgrades and clean energy transitions? And Sarah, I’ll send it off to you.
[00:39:40] Sarah Curran: Thanks Nicole. It’s a great question. I mean, I think the answer is we have to do it all, right? And so when the governor and the legislature created the Climate Council, which is responsible for delivering an updated climate action plan every four years, they charged it with developing a plan that includes both strategies to build resilience to climate impacts and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And there are statutory targets that the state has to meet. So we released the first climate action plan in 2020, and Maine has really made significant progress in the last few years.
We have record installations of heat pumps, and those we actually are a national leader in the installation of heat pumps, which is a really great strategy that reduces emissions and also reduce costs for people in their homes and keeps them more comfortable. And as I was mentioning, it’s beneficial in both the winter and the summer. So we’ve had great success with heat pumps.
We’ve continued to make progress on energy efficiency and weatherizing homes. We’ve really been investing in electric vehicle charging stations to support sort of the transition to electric vehicles. We also are on track to meet our goal of using 80% renewable energy for our electricity by 2030.
And the governor is developing a pathway to reach 100% clean energy by 2040. So we’re making really good progress in terms of reducing our emissions. We’re also, as we’ve been talking about, supporting a lot of local climate energy projects.
Federal funding has been hugely significant for climate inaction in Maine in the last several years. And we’ve been awarded more than $600 million from state and federal agencies has gone to communities for projects to help them become more climate resilient. As I was mentioning, more than 225 communities are now participating in the state grant program.
So all of that momentum and progress that we’ve been making is across those strategies. It is a strategy to both reduce our emissions and to make us more resilient to the impacts of climate change. And so we’ve been making progress.
Our goals are ambitious. We’re doing well. And at the same time, I think storm events like the ones we experienced last winter really remind us of the significance of the challenge and how urgent the work is and how much there is to do.
And so what you’ll see in the update of the state’s Climate Action Plan is a real attention and a doubling down on places where we need to make progress and sort of a renewed attention and focus on the importance of the work that we’re doing at the local, regional and state levels.
[00:42:13] Nicole LeBlanc: Sure, especially with the urgency of it all. Like you said, the storms from last year, like if that already wasn’t, you know, alarm bells enough, it’s obvious that Maine is taking this really seriously because we have to, you know, like there’s real stakes in it. Judy, if you want to follow?
[00:42:30] Judy East: Yeah, I’ll just build on what Sarah said, that following those storms, Governor Mills established the Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission. And its task was to identify, you know, to your question, the near-term rebuilding and resilience priorities and also a long-term resilience plan. That’ll come out next May.
So there was an interim report delivered just this past month. And the recommendations did fall into the sort of immediate, midterm and long term categories. Immediate actions, and some of these are in Maine Won’t Wait, but then it also digs in a little deeper.
But immediate actions to improve storm response include actions to enhance communications during and immediately after emergencies. There were some excellent examples and some not so great examples of how we got through the last couple of those bad storms last winter. Others to strengthen the role of philanthropic and nonprofit organizations to respond rapidly and provide immediate relief.
Expediting state permitting, that’s already been happening. And there’s further discussion when there’s sort of that post disaster rebuilding need. And then on the sort of immediate and midterm time frame, these time frames can be a little fluid because everything’s going to really get going right away.
But on the more immediate and midterm commission made recommendations to build a strong foundation of resources and capabilities like improving data for risk management decision making, identifying and strengthening critical vulnerable infrastructure. Again, that is also underway. Maximizing federal funding, improving energy infrastructure and adopting clean energy technologies.
And then all this we’ve talked a lot about capacity at local, regional and state levels to support communities when they’re proactively preparing for disasters. Then on the long term side, the recommendations included actions to build sort of long term analytical capabilities for understanding and communicating about risk. So there’s a recommendation for a very robust disaster and risk information center, exploring options for buildings and infrastructure to become more resilient through building codes and standards.
There’s a lot more. They were working on inland flood modeling. So there’s a tremendous amount of focus on providing data and then also on decision support tools so that it’s not just a whole lot of data, but how do you use it? How do you make it actionable for your community? Then I think I mentioned that the final resilience plan from the commission will come out next May.
[00:45:07] Nicole LeBlanc: Sure. Yeah. Especially the “how do you use it” aspect.
Because they’re right. You said there were so many things that you just said of assessing, of managing, of so much data centers, but it only really, really matters if the towns can use it and know how to navigate it. That’s a huge connection that I’m glad that is being recognized.
Those bridges to communities are being strengthened. Into my next question about local governance and working at the local level, what towns need for their climate assessments and plans at the local level? Once again, how can the states plan?
Maine Won’t Wait, connecting with different counties from rural to coastal, and especially just emphasizing how we communicate to the local level. And Samantha, I’ll start with you.
[00:45:53] Samantha Horn: Judy and Sarah have both been sort of knee deep in the strategy parts of this discussion, and how to leverage action and help communities through this process. I guess what I can offer today is to talk about this new office that’s just getting going, which I think is pretty exciting. It’s called the Maine Office of Community Affairs, and it’s really aimed at frankly making life easier for communities when they’re trying to solve these problems.
We’re going to be a hub for technical assistance and grants to communities for topics like housing, planning, climate resilience, and lots of other related topics. Not to say that we’ll have all of that expertise in-house, but we’d like to be a first point of contact, a one-stop-shop to help make things simpler for communities. We’re going to coordinate closely with other agencies like GO-PIF, like transportation, environmental protection, economic community development, so that there’s just fewer points of contact that communities have to make in state government, and it will save them time tracking down information.
And we’re going to be close partners with the regional planning and economic development organizations in the state. I mean, already, there’s a lot of ties there between state municipal planning work and those organizations, and that’s not going to change. We’re going to strengthen those partnerships. Also with a wide network of nonprofits and community groups as well. So where are we with this? So far, the office is me. It’s a one-person shop for the moment, but we’re going to be hiring a few people for the State Resilience Office, which I think Judy might talk a little bit more about later. Then in the budget process, the governor and the legislature will be bringing together a number of programs that serve communities into this shop starting in July. So over the course of the year, you’ll see this flushed out quite a bit more.
We’re in the formation stage, but in this first year, we hope to start tackling things like making information about grants easier to access, streamlining the application, and supporting communities through the application process. Things like training and assistance to towns on building codes, and flood protection, and things like working with communities on policy decisions about how to have more housing and quality of life and quality of place. We’re going to build it as we fly it, and that’s totally fine.
We’re all working towards the same goal. There have been so many important and successful initiatives in recent years. I really credit the Mills administration and the legislature for moving forward on key projects like the ones that Sarah and Judy were just talking about.
And now we’re just bringing some connective tissue to those important initiatives so that when communities take those steps, you know, they’re finding resources that are easy to understand and points of contact where they can just call, bring some more specifics to it. Hey, I have a question about topic X that relates to our land use or climate resilience. Who do I talk to?
And hopefully they don’t have to search around for the person that will be able to give them the information they need to just get straight to the answer that they need. So I’m really excited that this office is getting off the ground, that I get to be a part of it. I think there’s a lot more to say about this topic.
And I guess I’d ask Sarah and Judy to fill in for me behind my sort of general announcement about this new office and bring some more specifics to it.
[00:49:24] Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah, Sarah?
[00:49:25] Sarah Curran: Great. Yeah, we are so excited about the new one-stop shop, the Maine Office of Community Affairs. I think I also would just want to recognize some of the new federal opportunities that Maine has received.
So the updated Climate Action Plan continues to recommend that the state invest in technical assistance and grants and support for communities. It sets the goal of reaching 80% of Maine communities enrolled in the Community Resilience Partnership by 2030 and talks about continuing the support through programs like that and other programs in the Maine Office of Community Affairs to do that on-the-ground support for communities to help them while they’re tackling these really complex challenges like climate resilience. And I also want to highlight the one really significant federal award that the state received this past summer.
Maine was awarded historic funding for climate resilience from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s a five-year, $69 million climate resilience grant to the state, and it will support climate resilience in Maine’s communities. So thinking about communities both on the coast and inland who are dealing with extreme storms, flooding, rising sea levels, and the funding will be used to support communities through programs like the Community Resilience Partnership and the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund to provide additional support at the regional level, to provide additional tools and resources and technical assistance.
So this is a really exciting opportunity to implement a lot of the recommendations in Maine Moat Wait and from the Resilience Commission that Judy was describing.
[00:51:05] Nicole LeBlanc: Absolutely. Both of your answers together fit perfectly because I think technical assistance is huge and in info about grants is huge just on the local level and like you said Samantha, a town manager doesn’t know where to start. They pick up the phone and they may be knowing now that the Maine Office of Community Affairs can just start them on their way with what to prioritize, what to assess, what hazards are they facing? Are they on the coast? Are they rural, inland? What are they most? They know what they’re facing. And the massive grants from the federal level to put in these departments is huge. And to not only give information about grants, but have the money for these massive grants as well.
Judy, if you want to add on a little to the NOAA resilience grant as well.
[00:51:54] Judy East: So I’ll just underscore what I mentioned earlier about, we’re talking about the development of data and new tools, but we’re especially with this resilience grant, looking at things that will support towns in their decision making, to make it easier to access the data, the models, the information they need, and to meet them at the place where they’re at. So one of the projects that I’m working on is taking the project, the Community Resilience Workbook that you and I worked on, that you helped to update, that will come out in a paper format in the new year. Thank you for your help with that.
[00:52:21] Nicole LeBlanc: You’re very welcome.
[00:52:34] Judy East: And then this grant will take that work and put it online. The whole approach there is to have a… Some people like, you know, they want a handbook, they want to put their hands on it. But there are a ton of tools. And what we’re thinking of is a website that’s really a navigation portal. It doesn’t recreate them all. It just helps guide you and it meets you where you’re at. So I’m really excited about that. And we will mesh that technical assistance portal with the Grants Portal idea that Samantha mentioned earlier.
So very exciting.
[00:53:03] Nicole LeBlanc: That is really exciting and super streamlined. And I’m personally so excited to see that. We’ve already talked so much about partnerships, but I want to continue on that because I wanted to ask you, what other innovative strategies or collaborations have you encountered, your experience that you think hold promise for advancing Maine’s resilience efforts?
And Sarah, we can start with you again.
[00:53:25] Sarah Curran: I think I would build off of what we were talking about earlier with just the number of people and perspectives that we’re engaged in the State Climate Action Plan. I think it’s really unique and makes our plan a lot more valuable and means that it’s being implemented. The State Climate Action Plan is not sitting on a shelf. It is being implemented across the state by businesses and communities and nonprofits. The strategies in the plan require collaboration. These are not issues that will be solved by state government. They require the private sector, philanthropy, nonprofits , community-based organizations. We will all need to do this work together in order to be successful. I think the Climate Plan is built on that kind of collaboration. I think what we’ve seen over the last four years is that we’ve had good success implementing the plan because of the partnerships that are in place.
[00:54:18] Judy East: Can I just add to that, Nicole? I’m just so proud of Maine. The $69 million NOAA grant that we landed this past summer for regional resilience.
The primary reason that we got that grant, and it was wicked competitive nationwide, was because of these partnerships. These funds are going out to the University of Maine. They’re going to 11 regional councils. They’re going to Maine Sea Grant. They’re recapitalizing the Community Resilience Partnership. They’re going out to communities as well as to regions, and creating, like we just talked about, the models and decision support tools in direct support of Community Resilience.
So I really think that we landed a really competitive grant because of the partnerships. I think that was, put us right over the top.
[00:55:05] Nicole LeBlanc: No, thank you very much for highlighting that, because that’s huge, the partnership aspect. Absolutely. Samantha?
[00:55:11] Samantha Horn: Yeah, Nicole, I think that the project you worked on that was mentioned a little while ago, the Community Resilience Workbook, you know, it’s a prime example of, Judy outlined a very intentional partnering kind of approach with the NOAA grant. And there are also so many projects that are partnerships that sort of spring up organically, which are also, they’re a little bit of magic, right, when a project turns out that way. And so the Community Resilience Workbook is an example where it actually started as an idea to look at climate resilience metrics and see if we could standardize some of them to help communities not need to reinvent the wheel every time.
And it was sort of a GOPIF nature conservancy and UMaine effort to begin with. But as it got going, it became clear that there was energy for it to move in a different direction. And that was fine.
And then eventually just dozens of people showed up to contribute material to the workbook. And it became this much more impactful, bigger idea that has now grown and has gotten support from several different state agencies. And as Judy just described, will be turned into an easy-to-use portal.
And so that wasn’t, we didn’t set out to say, all right, we’re going to be in partnership with two dozen organizations. It just sort of happened because it was a good idea and people wanted the final product and so they were willing to pitch in to create it. And I think Maine is the kind of state where that can still happen and it’s really impressive.
So I’m really glad that I live here, that we have the kind of culture in the state where that happens. So I hope that we can keep fostering that as we do more work, because that’s really where we’re going to have an incredible return on the investment of time and money that’s going into these efforts. It’s going to multiply over and over by just leveraging the excitement from partners to move these things down the field.
[00:57:13] Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah, I can really speak to that need aspect of it, of the growing of things like the Climate Resilience Workbook. I remember that there wasn’t anything real specific on coastal resilience, working waterfronts, and it ended up being a couple state agencies really wanted that, and they ended up, I’m hoping that it’s still in there, including a whole new chapter on working waterfront. Yeah, it is amazing, working waterfront resilience, and I think that really speaks to that.
People will develop what we see a need for, and it’ll keep growing, which is fantastic. I want to ask about education. What role do you see education and professional development in climate education play in strengthening Maine’s climate resilience and empowering the next generation to take action?
Sarah?
[00:58:03] Sarah Curran: I think, I mean, you’ll see in the updated state climate action plan, there’s a real emphasis on education, on communication and outreach. We were talking earlier about education and outreach and making sure that people across Maine have the opportunity to benefit from climate action, to participate in programs that climate action is reaching low-income, rural Mainers. And I think there’s a special attention in the plan to young people and sort of recognizing the importance of engaging young people through climate education and also workforce development.
I think another theme that you’ll see throughout the plan is a recurring theme around workforce and both the job opportunities, the climate action, both strategies to reduce emissions, but also the resilience strategies will require a significant workforce and create a lot of job opportunity for Maine. And so one sector in particular that I would highlight is the clean energy economy. And a couple of years ago, the governor set a goal of 30,000 clean energy jobs in the state by 2030.
As of last year, we are halfway for that mark, which is really exciting. We have more than 15,000 people working in Maine’s clean energy sector. It’s growing faster than the state’s overall economy and surpassing growth in the same sector in other New England states.
So a great example of climate action creating real economic opportunity and good paying jobs for Maine people. So I want to highlight that one. And then just thinking about that more generally, the plan talks about the need to sort of provide information and education about climate careers, about clean energy jobs to Maine students more generally.
And so it talks about the need for, sort of, continuing to provide those opportunities in schools, continuing to think about workforce development and career paths for students. And also builds on some really great work that we’ve been doing over the last year, really engaging youth as part of this climate action plan update with support from Philanthropy. We’ve had a position in our office scope that has really been focused on engaging youth in climate action and helping young people identify paths and ways that they can be involved and contribute. And we had more than a thousand young Mayors participate in the development of the state’s climate action plan update, which was really, really exciting.
[01:00:17] Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah, Judy, would you like to continue there?
[01:00:20] Judy East: Yeah, I’ll just mention the Maine Climate Corps. It’s similar to the Maine Service Fellows Program, where recent college graduates apply their skills and knowledge to a service assignment for one or two years. And it’s directly targeting helping a community address a particular challenge.
So the Climate Corps members would work on projects like installing erosion control, measures on shorelines for resilience, or apply their skill in mapping and analyzing transportation networks for, say, trails or public transit development. And there’s a lot more too. Actually, that’s another link I could give you to those two programs. They’re super active right now. And they’ll move over into MOCA, the Maine Office of Community Affairs. I’ll just end on this overall subject with one thing that I have found truly inspiring is that I’ve seen in the past five years, just a significant expansion of the number of young professionals in these programs. U’ve seen it especially in resilience. Sarah talked about it in the clean energy economy. The network of young people working across the spectrum of resilience activity.
There’s existing planners who I’ve worked with for years who are expanding their skill sets. There’s young graduates contributing their technical and community engagement talents. And I’ll add you, Nicole, with your communication skills. And then just new professionals are moving to Maine to engage in this work. So I’m loving seeing this generational shift and blossom.
[01:01:47] Nicole LeBlanc: I mean, that is for me very, very hopeful. I mean, that’s one of the reasons why I jumped on that internship opportunity. And it’s just great to see how many people my age are so energized and recognize the urgency for our generation, for every generation coming after.
Samantha, I don’t know if you have anything to add as well.
[01:02:10] Samantha Horn: I think just that, you know, Judy mentioned that the volunteer Maine programs are going to become part of MOCA. And I think it’s going to be really nice to have a sort of full life cycle in the office where we start with basic information and technical assistance, helping people through the grant process, you know, all the way to providing follow up on the ground in the community action through volunteer Maine programs. Recognizing that a lot of what’s going to happen is going to happen out in partner organizations, right?
Like regional councils and other organizations that are going to take on a lot of the day to day connecting with communities. But I think that ability to see the whole picture in one state agency and then collaborate with other state agencies is going to be great to allow us to deliver services and information in ways that are really meaningful for communities and look at the whole package of services that they need. So I’m excited about this.
Some people, when I talked to them about the office, they don’t, you know, first click think volunteer Maine, that naturally fits in MOCA, but I think that full life cycle concept is really very powerful and I think it’s going to be an awesome fit.
[01:03:22] Nicole LeBlanc: Yeah, that’s fantastic. And one other thing I’m really interested in is that youth workforce that Sarah, that you brought up, that’s a huge burgeoning industry in itself, and having the education opportunities to engage with students to let them know that these are, there is a huge opportunity out there for youth engagement and working in all levels of all sorts of sectors that will incorporate climate resilience. I think that’s huge.
I want to cap off by just asking, is there anything else you would like to mention that we haven’t already discussed? I’ll go back to you Sarah.
[01:03:58] Sarah Curran: This has been really fun. Thank you so much for having us today. I think the only thing I wanted to just circle back on is something that you mentioned earlier, thinking about how the storms of last year really hit home for people in a new way.
I think that the climate impacts that people are experiencing now are very real. I think whether they are engaged with climate change as a concept, they’re wanting to protect their families, to protect their communities, to become more resilient. And so I think there is this opportunity where resilience can be an entry point for people into these conversations.
[01:04:09] Nicole LeBlancYeah, Judy, if you want to add anything else?
[01:04:35] Judy East: I think Sarah just nailed it. I completely agree. It’s an entry point and let’s just get to work.
[01:04:45] Samantha Horn: Yeah, I think that’s a perfect place to leave it. I wholeheartedly agree.
[01:04:49] Nicole LeBlanc: All right. Well, this has been amazing for me to sit on and moderate. So thank you again for being here.
I really, really appreciate it.
[01:05:00] Eric Miller: If you enjoyed this episode and the previous discussions we’ve had on this podcast, please consider donating to the Maine Policy Review by visiting the journals website linked in the description. Our team comprises Barbara Harrity and Joyce Rumery, co-editors of Maine Policy Review. Jonathan Rubin directs the Policy Center. Thanks to faculty associate Kathryn Swacha, professional writing consultant, Maine Policy Matters writer Nicole LeBlanc, and podcast producer, editor, and writer Jayson Heim. Thanks to Nathanael Batson for composing our podcast music. Check out mcslibrary.org to learn more about Margaret Chase Smith, the Library and Museum, and Education and Public Policy.
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