Susan Collins Cannot (Alas!) Be Bothered To Even Appear "Concerned" When It Comes To A Collapsing Climate

[hatrack]

Last August, when reports emerged that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) planned to cancel $7 billion in grants for solar panels for low-income households, including an estimated 20,000 households in Maine, Sen. Susan Collins seemed to defend the move. “It is no surprise, now that control of the White House has changed, that the new administration would consider terminating this IRA program,” she was quoted as saying, referring to the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

While Collins did call the termination “abrupt” and “unfortunate,” her primary concern seemed to be rehashing the IRA’s partisan passage. “Not one Republican voted for the Inflation Reduction Act that included this grant program,” Collins said, highlighting her own opposition to the 2022 law many have called the most significant piece of climate legislation in United States history.

Collins, who recently announced she would run this year for a sixth term in the Senate, has largely stood by during the Trump administration’s all-out assault on federal climate and clean energy policy. At key moments—as when the Department of Energy released a so-called “critical review” of climate science by five hand-picked climate skeptics—Collins did not speak out, at least publicly, in opposition.

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If the election were held today, energy affordability could well be a determinative issue for many Maine voters, even if climate change itself might not be: In the Pan-Atlantic poll, neither climate nor any other environmental issue ranked among the top seven among important issues for surveyed voters. (The poll was released before the recent surge of ICE enforcement in Maine, which has emerged as a crucial campaign issue.) Cost of living, however, ranked first. That presents an opportunity for those linking Trump’s success in delaying permitted offshore wind projects, including those already under construction, with high energy prices in Maine. That connection is backed by data from groups supportive of wind energy showing the difference those projects could have made in bringing down utility bills across New England last winter.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21032026/maine-senator-susan-collins-climate-action/

[mopinko]

1. i'm so glad i got my solar already.

it’s paid off so handsomely. it cd help ppl in maine not freeze to death. so, of course, concerned susie is aginit.