"Governor Janet Mills announced that Maine has, two years ahead of time, surpassed its goal of installing 100,000 new heat pumps by 2025, a milestone that represents significant progress in reducing Maine’s reliance on heating oil, lowering heating costs, and curbing harmful carbon emissions.
To continue Maine’s momentum, Governor Mills also unveiled a new target: installing another 175,000 additional heat pumps in Maine by 2027, thereby bringing the number of heat pumps installed in Maine homes, businesses, and public buildings during her time in office to 275,000.
If this target is achieved, Maine would have more than 320,000 heat pumps in total installed across the state.
Heat pumps can be thought of as temperature recycling machines. They are filled with refrigerant fluid and contain a compressor, and they work by extracting excess heat and moving it around, either in or out of a house depending on whether it’s hot or cold.
It’s believed they work best in hot weather, but in February, Maine’s temperatures in some places plummeted during a cold snap to -60°F. Efficiency Maine, which aided in the state’s adoption of heat pumps by organizing rebates for customers under the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, did a survey of owners they had helped the previous year.
Many of [the heat pump owners] reported they were comfortable and warm, and offered to bring up the fact that by February they had already saved hundreds of dollars on home heating systems, over boilers, gas furnaces, and heating oil.
“We are setting an example for the nation,” said Mills at the announcement event. “Our transition to heat pumps is… curbing our reliance on fossil fuels, and cutting costs for Maine families, all while making them more comfortable in their homes—a hat trick for our state.”
The transition began in 2019 with bipartisan support of the Legislature, when Governor Mills enacted laws setting ambitious targets for transitioning to renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
hey. important post. i found this elsewhere but it needs all the visibility that it can get.
The Maine shooter opened fire on a bowling alley / arcade called Spare Time during a youth event. The manager of Spare Time, Thomas Giberti (right), was shot in the legs 5 times while protecting 6 lanes of youth bowlers while they made it out the back to safety. He is now stable after surgery.
Tom Giberti is also the President of The Store Next Door which is a non-profit that works with the Lewiston School District to clothes and feed homeless kids in Lewiston so they can attend school. This is the type of person that we need 8 billion of.
At the bottom of this news article from March 2023 is a link for how you can donate to The Store Next Door.
Even if you don't have anything to give, consider reblogging this post. This is an actual, real life hero and he deserves to be known for what he did and has done to support the people in his community who need it the most.