With a deadly virus raging across our state and across our nation, we cannot also forget the effects of this pandemic on our economy and on the long-term health and safety of our communities.

These effects include the need to expand our workforce and to pave the way for good paying jobs for young people in new industries.

We cannot forget the other major looming threat to our economy and to our health — climate change. The impacts of which we see on ocean temperatures, air quality, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Back in the fall of 1970, 11-year-old Suzanne Clune wrote a letter to her United States Senator.

She wrote about the Little Androscoggin River, a once pristine tributary where deer could see their reflection and where spring pine and chokeberry blossoms “filled the air with the sweetest smell on earth,” but that was before toxic chemicals polluted the waters.

“Now in any season,” Suzanne wrote to Senator Edmund Muskie, "you can smell the most sickening smell on earth, a stench that left frogs 'gasping for air.’ I am sick of the river like this,” she said. “Please do something about it.” And she signed her letter, “One who loves Maine.”

Suzanne’s letter helped motivate Senator Muskie during his career-long fight for clean air and clean water. Today, as a result of his actions, our rivers — the Androscoggin, Kennebec and the Penobscot Rivers, among others, are restored. We now fish, boat and swim there.

I am grateful that Suzanne did not wait to act.

Today the threat of climate change jeopardizes not only Maine’s natural resources but our state’s economy and social wellbeing as well.

With this crisis on our doorstep, like Suzanne Clune, we cannot afford to wait.

We must act now to honor the legacy of Maine’s environmental stewards who bequeathed this precious place to us; to preserve our state for our children and grandchildren to enjoy as we do; and build a thriving economy with opportunities for growth far into the future.

So earlier this week, the Maine Climate Council released its four year climate action plan called Maine Won’t Wait. It calls for decisive action on the climate crisis in our state.

Based on the findings of that report, I propose that we more than double the number of Maine’s clean energy and energy efficiency jobs by 2030. These 30,000 jobs or more will save money for Maine families, make us more efficient, and fight climate change while providing new opportunities to Maine working men and women and advancing long-term prosperity for our state.

I will seek partnerships with federal officials, state lawmakers, local leaders, businesses and nonprofits to reach the climate targets and the measurable outcomes described in this plan.

Eleven-year old Suzanne Clune’s letter to Senator Muskie fifty years ago was a call to action of that era.

Let this plan be our call to action once again to protect the natural beauty of our state; to improve the lives of our families and the livelihoods of our people; and to ward off future natural disasters and economic crises. Because, like Suzanne, we too are "ones who love Maine” and we must do our best to preserve and protect it.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.