NRCM News Release Portland, ME – During a “citizen hearing” today in Portland, local health experts, marine fisheries experts, clean energy leaders and conservation advocates, highlighted the public health and economic benefits of the EPA’s new carbon pollution standards for power plants, and urged Maine’s elected leaders, including Senators Collins and King to pledge support Read More
Climate Change
Climate change and global warming pollution harm Maine people, wildlife, and our environment. Global warming, also known as climate change, is caused by a blanket of pollution that traps heat around the earth. This pollution comes from cars, factories, homes, and power plants that burn fossil fuels such as oil, coal, natural gas, and gasoline.
Climate-changing pollution knows no boundaries. It enters the atmosphere, spreads across the globe, and traps heat around the earth for 50-200 years after it is emitted. That is why we need to reduce global warming pollution now, because our children, and their children, will still feel the effects of global warming for years to come. Currently, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are at their highest levels in hundreds of thousands of years.
Learn how you can reduce climate-changing pollution and advocate for a cleaner, healthier Maine.
South Portland Blocks ‘Tar Sands’ Exports
by David Carkhuff Portland Daily Sun news story The South Portland City Council on Monday night voted 6-1 to pass a “Clear Skies Ordinance,” which supporters say will protect the city from a “tar sands” crude oil terminal but that opponents described as a futile gesture based on unflagging oil demand. “We strongly support this Read More
Maine’s Tar Sands Oil Ban a Win for Activists
Portland vote lifts hopes of environmentals wary of pipeline By David Abel, Globe staff Boston Globe news story SOUTH PORTLAND — Since World War II, fleets of oil tankers from around the world have sailed up to the long jetty in this placid harbor and unloaded their crude into a 236-mile pipeline that pumped it to Read More
South Portland Girds for Legal Battle, Praised for Precedent on Its Tar Sands Ban
Conservation groups and other areas celebrate the city’s stand against the heavy crude, as opponents map out strategies for overturning the new regulation. By Leslie Bridgers, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story South Portland officials are preparing for a legal battle with members of the oil industry over a City Council vote Monday to Read More
How a Town in Maine is Blocking an Exxon Tar-sands Pipeline
By Roger Drouin Grist news story Citizens trying to stop the piping of tar-sands oil through their community wore blue “Clear Skies” shirts at a city council meeting in South Portland, Maine, this week. But they might as well have been wearing boxing gloves. The small city struck a mighty blow against Canadian tar-sands extraction. Read More
Maine City Council Votes To Keep Tar Sands Out Of Its Port
by Susan Sharon NPR news story South Portland, Maine, is known as the place where Liberty ships were built by tens of thousands of workers during World War II. Now, the city’s waterfront is home to an oil terminal and the beginning of a 236-mile-long pipeline. For more than 70 years, the Portland Montreal Pipeline Read More
Maine Conservation Groups Gather with South Portland Residents to Celebrate and React to Tar Sands Vote
Read more about tar sands in South Portland Read public comments by NRCM’s Lisa Pohlmann at final South Portland City Council vote News Release Portland—In a historic vote, the South Portland City Council last night voted 6-1 to pass the Clear Skies Ordinance to protect the city from a tar sands crude oil terminal. The Read More
South Portland Passes Ordinance to Block Tar Sands
by Danielle Waugh WCSH-6 news story SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — With a 6-1 vote, South Portland City Councilors have made history by passing an ordinance to block the loading of crude oil, including tar sands oil. According to the Natural Resources Council of Maine, South Portland is the first community to pass such Read More
South Portland Council Casts “Historic” Vote to Block Tar Sands Exports
By Darren Fishell, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story PORTLAND, Maine — The South Portland City Council has effectively banned the export of tar sands, or oil sands, from its waterfront with an ordinance that has gained international attention and that oil industry opponents have vowed to challenge in court or before city officials. Read More