Last week, Janet Mills unveiled the list of towns receiving new electric vehicle charging stations, the vast majority of which are college towns or tourist communities. These include Portland, Falmouth, Rockland, Belfast and the colleges of Bates, Bowdoin, and the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.

Last spring, Mills announced an electric vehicle (EV) rebate program, offering $2,000 back for the purchase of an electric vehicle—and if you qualify as “low income” you can get a $3,000 rebate. THE AVERAGE PRICE FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES IS $55,000, and you need to pay another $2,000 to install equipment just to charge it at home.

Although Governor Mills has stated that her first goal of this program, the Efficiency Maine EV Accelerator Program, is: “to strengthen Maine’s economy by reducing the amount of money Maine drivers are forced to spend on fossil fuels for their vehicles,” her administration is actively negotiating with 11 other states to design a fuel permitting scheme that will raise the cost of gasoline and diesel by what could be as much as 20 cents or more a gallon—called the “TCI Framework.”

IN OTHER WORDS, JANET MILLS HAS GIVEN SUBSIDIES TO PEOPLE WHO CAN ALREADY AFFORD TO BUY AN ELECTRIC CAR AND HAS NOW MADE IT MORE CONVENIENT TO CHARGE THEM AT HER NEW STATIONS, ALL WHILE SHE IS WORKING TO RAISE THE PRICES OF THE GASOLINE AVERAGE MAINERS NEED TO GET TO WORK.

MPBP believes that forcing businesses that sell gasoline and diesel to pay permitting fees to state government would pass a regressive, hidden tax onto Maine drivers and increase the cost of everything delivered over the road.

YOUR PUBLIC COMMENT ON THE TCI FRAMEWORK IS NEEDED AND CAN BE SUBMITTED, BY NOVEMBER 5, here: https://www.transportationandclimate.org/…/tci-regional-pol… . All comments are posted on the TCI website.