Google’s Top Climate and Energy Expert Tells Maine Audience NRCM news release In a keynote address to a Portland audience Wednesday evening, a spokesperson from internet powerhouse Google described his company’s vision of a clean energy future for the United States. Dan Reicher, Google’s Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, predicted that renewable energy Read More
Clean Energy Jobs Expanding in Maine: 2,500 Maine Businesses Involved in Wind Power, Solar, and Energy Efficiency
NRCM news release Bangor – According to a new analysis released today by the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), the development of wind power and renewable energy and the expansion of energy efficiency programs are generating significant jobs in Maine today, and the potential for future job growth is large. “By our count, over Read More
Protecting the Moosehead Lake Region
In 2005, Plum Creek, a Seattle-based real estate development corporation, put forth the largest development proposal Maine had ever seen—and that would carve the heart out of one of Maine’s most treasured places, Moosehead Lake, a region loved for its remote ponds, undeveloped shorelines, traditional recreation, stunning mountain vistas, and peace and quiet. Plum Creek’s Read More
NRCM Response to Plum Creek Decision
Brownie Carson, NRCM Executive Director “Today’s vote by the Land Use Regulation Commission approving Plum Creek’s massive development plan for Moosehead Lake is deeply unsettling.” “It is unsettling because it may result in a level of future development, traffic, and increased congestion in the Moosehead Lake region that will forever damage one of Maine’s most Read More
Take Me to the River: NRCM Paddles the Kennebec
Natural Resources Council of Maine supporters and staff paddled the Kennebec River from Sidney, Maine, to Augusta on August 15, 2009. This event was one of 50 in celebration of NRCM’s 50th anniversary this year. It also commemorated the 10th anniversary of the removal of the Edwards Dam in Augusta. Thanks to all who joined Read More
After Plum Creek: A Provocation
by Robert Kimber Down East magazine September 2009 Sometime this fall the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) is expected to hand down its approval of Plum Creek’s massive development plan for the Moosehead Lake region. Back in 2005, when Plum Creek first submitted its plan, a friend of mine predicted how this saga would unfold: Read More
10 Years, 430 Dams
New York Times editorial Ten years have gone by since a modest but important moment in American environmental history: the dismantling of the 917-foot-wide Edwards Dam on Maine’s Kennebec River. The Edwards Dam was the first privately owned hydroelectric dam torn down for environmental reasons (and against the owner’s wishes) by the Federal Energy Regulatory Read More
Happy 50th, NRCM
Times Record editorial During a 1965 hike with fellow poet Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsburg looked across the panorama of mountains as they stood on Glacier Peak and asked incredulously, “You mean, there’s a senator for all this?” Snyder recalls that he quickly corrected his friend, saying, “There is not a senator for all that.” Sadly, Read More
Marking a Rebirth
by Keith Edwards, staff writer Kennebec Journal news story AUGUSTA — Sidney resident George Viles said he felt frustrated and anxious 10 years ago that the Edwards Dam was being removed. But on his first fishing trip after the Kennebec River ran free, he landed three striped bass, and a large smallmouth, in 20 minutes. Read More