Our Impact

MCV has been protecting Maine’s environment, democracy, and our climate future since 1986. Your support, action, and love of Maine has fueled major victories to protect our air, land, water, wildlife, climate, health, and democracy.

Together, we can keep up the momentum to meet the scale and urgency of Maine’s most pressing environmental challenges by electing conservation champions, building powerful coalitions, advancing bold policies, and listening to and partnering with communities most impacted by pollution and the effects of climate change.

Before we shortened our name to Maine Conservation Voters, we were Maine League of Conservation Voters. We used this banner to represent our work, created by Jon Luoma.

Priorities

At MCV, we know that the health of our planet and our democracy are inextricably linked. We advocate for policies that reflect our goals to advance ambitious climate action, a fair clean energy transition, racial justice, an accessible democracy, and the protection of our natural resources.

Highlights of our 2022 wins include working with partners, allies, and supporters to help win new laws that will:

Encourage investments in energy-efficient, affordable, and compact housing;
Stop the practice of filling Maine’s landfills with out-of-state waste;
Raise water quality standards for more than 800 miles of rivers and streams;
Invest in secure and accessible elections; and so much more!

The stories behind these victories include your advocacy, incredible coalition work, and an astounding number of Maine people who took action!

Partnerships

The progress MCV has helped achieve for Maine communities and our environment has only been possible because of the power of coalitions, partnerships, supporters, and activists. Maintaining healthy, lasting partnerships is an essential part of what we do at MCV. Whether it’s our work with the Environmental Priorities Coalition (EPC), Mainers for Modern Elections, the Wabanaki Alliance, Maine Votes, or Vision for an Equitable Maine, we are listening to allies and taking action together.

Since 2004, we’ve worked with our partners in Maine’s Environmental Priorities Coalition to secure the passage of more than 100 bills to protect Maine’s climate, environment, and health.

Accountability

We provide objective, factual information about the most important climate and environmental legislation being considered and the corresponding voting records of all members of the Maine State Legislature in our annual Environmental Scorecard released each summer. Legislative champions tout their scores and the media use them as a definitive measure of legislator’s environmental credentials.

In 2023, MCV:

Scored legislators on their votes to advance responsible offshore wind development, ensure access to affordable clean energy, block the fossil fuel protection act, protect loons from lead poisoning, protect voting rights for eligible voters, safeguard democracy in the classroom, and restore access to federal benefits for Wabanaki Nations.
Provided stories beyond the votes.
Shared our Environmental Scorecard with thousands of Mainers online, through the mail, and at events across the state.
Developed an online tool allowing Mainers to look up their legislators’ votes, which you can find on our Scorecard page.

Elections

MCV Action Fund, our Political Action Committee, endorses climate and environmental champions for the Maine State Legislature and for Governor. In 2022, MCV Action Fund invested nearly $1 million in elections, reaching over 14 million viewers digitally. We endorsed Governor Mills for re-election, twenty-five candidates for the Maine Senate, and ninety-three candidates for the Maine House. Of our endorsed legislative candidates, 88% in the State Senate and 78% in the State House won their races.