PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 26, 2026
If you break it, you fix it. The climate has been broken, and large fossil fuel companies have been breaking it knowingly for decades. The Maine State Legislature is considering LD 1870 that will require the largest culprits causing climate change-related damage in Maine to pay for repairs and/or adaptations to protect against future damage. This bill is not asking fossil fuel industries to fix the climate system after breaking it, only to clean up the mess their breaking has caused, and to fund protections against further damage. Without LD 1870, those costs will fall to Maine taxpayers. Jan. 27 is Make Polluters Pay Day of Action at the State House. All those concerned about Maine’s growing climate-related damage and about climate justice are urged to attend. ~ Richard Peterson, Ph.D., emeritus professor of environmental studies, University of New England