We applaud the students of the Lincoln Academy Climate Action Club for their engagement with local government in the form of the Newcastle Board of Selectmen. We will applaud these students even more if, rather than pursue passage of a doomsday declaration with no specific policy proposals, they continue to engage with town officials to pursue practical action on climate change.
Newcastle Selectman Joel Lind took a commendable approach during a meeting with the students. Lind, a building contractor, brought the discussion around to specific ways the town can become more energy efficient.
The students would gain much if they take Lind up on his offer to work with them. They would gain much if they engage in further talks and learn about the practical considerations of municipal government and the economic side of energy issues.
If the students collect signatures and send their “climate emergency resolution” to a vote, even if it passes, what does it accomplish? They have an inspirational story for their college essays, but will their resolution have any effect? Will it have legal standing? Is the town going to take the drastic – yet nonspecific – steps the resolution demands, or is the resolution going to sit in a file somewhere while the selectmen return to the humdrum day-to-day activities of town governance?
What “bold policy responses” can or should the town take to “implement in 10 years the end of the fossil fuel era?”
Is there an environmentally friendly and fiscally feasible alternative to the massive plow trucks that clear our roads? To the asphalt and heavy equipment we use to maintain them?
Many towns are turning to solar power, heat pumps, LED lights, and other measures as they seek both cost and energy efficiency. Newcastle could pursue the same. Then what?
The resolution calls for immediate “emergency funding,” which sounds like reckless fiscal policy to us.
The students claim to speak for “vulnerable communities,” but what about the vulnerable senior citizens and working-class families who already struggle to pay Newcastle’s property taxes – $1,790 per year for a $100,000 property? Even with Maine’s progressive minimum wage, that’s several weeks of pay for a low-income worker to cover the tax bill on even a modest home.
These students deserve credit for interacting with local government at all – we see precious little interest from students in local government.
They will deserve more credit and earn a lot of respect, at least from us, if they stay at the table and work toward practical solutions regarding climate change-related issues.
