Carbon Policy and Energy Efficiency for Maine’s Marine Industries
Principal Investigator: Aaron Strong (UMaine School of Marine Sciences)
Partners: Sam Belknap (UMaine, Climate Change Institute), Parker Gassett (UMaine School of Marine Sciences)
Abstract: Maine is one of nine northeastern states that is a member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, one of the largest and longest functioning carbon markets in the world. Throughout 2016, RGGI has gone through a stakeholder outreach process as it develops a draft update plan to extend beyond 2020. Notably absent from that outreach has been any work with stakeholders in coastal natural resource communities. To fill this gap, in late 2016, a RGGI/Coasts Working Group was formed to bring together partners at the Island Institute, at the University of Maine and at other organizations to work to engage Maine’s coastal natural resource users, fishermen and marine industry representatives around carbon policy and energy efficiency opportunities within their industries. This project will support an undergraduate assistant to contribute to (a) the development programming for education and outreach about Maine’s carbon policy, and about economic opportunities through RGGI for improving energy efficiency in Maine’s coastal communities and (b) to assess the effectiveness of such outreach at engaging natural resource user communities about carbon policy in Maine.