PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 27, 2026
Climate change has already cost Bath taxpayers millions of dollars. Enough is enough, said Bath City Councilor Jean Guzzetti. She was the lead speaker at a rally Tuesday at the Maine State Capitol on behalf of a proposed bill that would make big polluters, like Mobil or Shell, help fund Maine’s climate-related infrastructure projects. “It’s time for polluters to pay because we have already paid,” said Guzzetti. About 100 people attended the Make Polluters Pay Day of Action. The state has spent $60 million in the 2024-25 supplemental budget for storm relief and spent $39 million last year to fund a storm preparedness bill passed in the wake of back-to-back-to-back winter storms that caused an estimated $90 million in infrastructure damage. The bill has lingered in legislative committee since last spring while lawmakers waited to see how other states defended their climate superfund bills.