Maines targets to reduce emissions may be harder to hit without electric vehicle standards [Video]

Maine may have a harder road to travel to reach its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions following another delay in establishing standards aimed at ramping up electric vehicle sales in the state.

State officials set ambitious climate goals in 2020, including a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 45% from 1990 levels by 2030. While that is more than five years away, the first EV model year that could be affected by clean car standards would be 2029 – if the Legislature takes up the issue next January.

The transportation sector accounts for more than half of carbon emissions, according to the state climate plan, so reaching those targets without expanding the use of EVs will be a steep climb, environmentalists say.

Anthony J. Ronzio, deputy director of communications and public affairs at the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, would not say how Maine might reach its …