This section is a draft excerpt from the upcoming 2025 Maine Community Resilience Workbook.

Communities may choose to develop and adopt an energy plan to guide their actions. While some integrate energy goals into broader municipal or regional planning, energy-related initiatives can be implemented both before and during the planning process.

• Tribal governments have been leading on energy planning. In 2006, the Penobscot Nation’s Long-Term Strategic Energy Plan laid out its energy efficiency and resource goals, including a wide range of sustainable energy generation considerations. The Penobscot Nation has built on this plan to advance projects for integrated solar, storage, and microgrids (see Microgrids section below). The Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians have proposed community-scale renewable energy and electrification goals as part of their Priority Climate Action Plans.

• Penobscot Climate Action, a coalition of 11 towns in the greater Bangor area led by the Bangor Area Comprehensive Transportation System (BACTS), features energy-related strategies in its regional climate plan.
• The Town of Mount Desert’s climate action plan includes a range of energy-focused goals, from renewables to beneficial electrification for residents, and the Tremont Community Resilience Plan aims to find solutions to residents’ needs for a more affordable and reliable energy system. These plans illustrate collaborations among town leadership, municipal staff, volunteer committees, and the public, facilitated by the community-based organization A Climate to Thrive.
• Standalone energy plans are infrequent at the local level in Maine, but communities can look to the U.S. DOE’s community strategic energy planning guides, the VECAN municipal energy planning guide, and the State of Vermont’s guidance for translating state-level energy plans (such as the updated Maine Energy Plan) into actions that municipalities can take. In Vermont, this planning process leads to the adoption of a “municipal enhanced energy plan,” supplementing local comprehensive plans and earning favorable review standards for renewable energy projects sited within the plan’s area.
• In addition, many Maine communities and Wabanaki Tribes have incorporated energy-related goals into the government resolutions they passed to join the Maine Community Resilience Partnership. In July 2024, a team led by Dr. Sharon Klein at the University of Maine collected data on community resolution goals, analyzing 85 resolutions submitted by these communities, of which 33 specifically focused on energy-related goals. These goals guide decision-making at the local and tribal government levels about the focus of their CRP’s Community Action Grant proposals.