🦞 Divest delay

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By Michael Shepherd - April 3, 2023
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📷 Lobsters harvested from the Gulf of Maine sit in a crate at an Arundel shipping facility on Nov. 18, 2020. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

Good morning from Augusta. Here's the legislative committee agenda for Monday, led by a public hearings on a ream of gun control bills from Democratic lawmakers. Watch here at 1 p.m.

What we're watching today

It will take years for Maine to divest from things politicians don't like. The Democratic-led Legislature passed a bill two years ago to set a 2026 deadline for the state to dump investments in fossil fuels. A Republican-led effort this year targets divestment in Amazon after Whole Foods, its grocery chain, said it would stop buying Maine lobster due to sustainability concerns.
There is one big catch here, though. Maine's state pension system said in a January report that it will only reduce fossil fuel investments by about one-third by that deadline.
It is because of a provision in the Maine Constitution to act solely in the "best financial interests" of those invested in the system, meaning investment cannot be dumped quickly and can only be sold when it is financially rational to do so. That trumps any law that made on the topic.
Maine was the first state to force divestiture in this way through legislation. Many other states have seen bills to do so, and there has been a backlash in conservative states that have looked to punish companies trying to get out of fossil fuel investments.
But these holdings are baked into the massive pools that make up pension systems. For example, Maine found in late 2022 that fossil fuels made up nearly 8 percent of the pension system and such investments are both unintentional and "widespread" within a majority of asset classes.
"Achieving and maintaining a fossil fuel-free portfolio by 2026 would require both disposing of significant existing investments as well as making fundamental changes to [the public employees retirement system's] investment approach," the January report read.
This teaches us a lot about the lobster approach, which is contained in a bill led by Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn. It is far from as sweeping as the fossil fuel measure, with the retirement system estimating $70 million of exposure due solely to investments in Amazon, Maine Public reported earlier this year.
"By continuing on the current track, the State of Maine is also, in a sense, boycotting this critically important industry," Brakey said in written testimony earlier this year. "It's time to change the course."
Divestment has proven to be politically popular, and it could again when it comes to Maine's legacy fishery. But divestment does not have to mean divestment, even when lawmakers say so. Whether it is oil or Amazon, getting rid of these holdings is going to take years if it ever happens at all.

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News and notes

📷 Assistant Senate Minority Leader Lisa Keim, R-Dixfield, is pictured in the Maine Senate chamber at the State House in Augusta on June 30, 2021. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

🦠 Republicans take aim at COVID-19 vaccine mandates on Monday.
◉ Mandates, especially the one enacted in 2021 for health care workers, have been among the most politically contentious pieces of Mills' pandemic policies. Republican lawmakers have put forward several bills to end them again this year, even though Democrats are likely to turn them back.
◉ Lawmakers on the education committee will hear several of them on Monday, including one from No. 2 Senate Republican Lisa Keim of Dixfield, who wants to. prohibit COVID-19 vaccines or others under federal emergency use authorization from being mandated in schools. Watch it.
◉ Mills stopped short of saying she wanted to mandate the vaccine in schools during the 2022 campaign, but she did not rule it out.
🤒 The governor will miss a big visit after her second bout with COVID-19.
◉ Mills announced Sunday she tested positive and will miss the Wednesday visit by first lady Jill Biden to Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. The governor is "fine" aside from a scratchy throat, she said.,
◉ It came about a year after Mills' first COVID-19 diagnosis. She was out and about this weekend, appearing at the State of Maine Sportsman's Show in Augusta on Saturday.

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What we're reading

🤷‍♀️ Sen. Susan Collins had a brief response to Donald Trump's indictment.
🔑 She and her kids were nearly homeless. Federal aid led to a solution.
⌚ Mainers are waiting a year for dementia evaluations.
👞 Penobscot County hired a lobbyist to push for a new jail and more police.
🚓 Holden's new police chief plans to wear his late mentor's badge and continue his legacy. Here's your soundtrack .

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