Read some highlights from June 2022 news stories and opinion pieces related to the environment, including Maine’s air, land, water, and wildlife, in this News & Noteworthy from the Natural Resources Council of Maine.
June 2022
We are going to cover the news from the past two weeks in this week’s News & Noteworthy.
We don’t think she is nerdy, but self-proclaimed “trash nerd” and NRCM Sustainable Maine Director Sarah Nichols was featured in this month’s Sierra Club magazine, highlighting her work and the work of other Maine groups and individuals, to pass a first-in-the-nation Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging law. Oregon and Colorado have since passed their own legislation.
Governor Mills and her administration announced a new $15 million program to help Maine communities, public schools, and Tribal governments to reduce energy costs through energy efficiency improvements. This announcement came during a Maine Climate Council conference in Augusta.
Read this New York Times op-ed to learn about the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is headed to the Senate, where it has a good chance of passing. This bill, if passed, includes $1.39 billion for wildlife conservation.
More news from Washington: Maine’s US Senators Susan Collins and Angus King released a joint statement in strong support of a new partnership between the US Department of Energy and Mount Desert Island to strengthen energy infrastructure and speed access to clean power, helping the environment and the island’s economy.
Fifty years ago, Maine’s US Senator Edmund Muskie championed the federal Clean Water Act after being inspired by the dirty, polluted Androscoggin River, along which he grew up. Now, 50 years later, thanks to this legislation, people can fish and swim in the river. Now that’s something to celebrate! Speaking of Clean Water Act celebrations, join our partners and us as we celebrate this milestone throughout 2022.
The Maine Monitor mentioned four bills from the last legislative session related to Maine’s environment. These are all bills that NRCM followed and testified on. See the full list of bills that we tracked and worked on last session.
The Greater Portland Council of Governments is partnering with five Maine towns (Cumberland, Yarmouth, Freeport, North Yarmouth, and Brunswick) to apply for funding to help the towns reduce their climate emissions and increase opportunities like additional electric vehicle charging stations. Learn more from the Portland Press Herald.
Along with these southern and Midcoast Maine towns, communities in Aroostook County are going all-in with a large number of proposed solar power projects. Read more in the Bangor Daily News.
Maine was the first state in the nation to pass an extended producer responsibility for packaging law in 2021, and that will ensure that corporations pay for the cost of recycling packaging material rather than Maine taxpayers and municipalities who currently foot the bill. In a recent Grist article, almost half of all Amazon shareholders agreed that now is the time to cut back on plastic packaging.
As we all start planning our summer outdoor adventures, the Bangor Daily News highlights the fact that all roads in Maine’s North Woods are private so it shares some useful tips and information before you head out to explore.
Two Midcoast communities are featured in this Portland Press Herald piece about some new projects that will receive Land for Maine’s Future funding. Do you want to explore some Land for Maine’s Future lands? Let us help! We are adding new locations right now to our Explore Maine Map. Check it out and find places in all 16 Maine counties to hike, paddle, ski, camp, and more.
Two pieces of good news will start this week’s News & Noteworthy, and both are about public land in Maine! The first is Governor Mills’ announcement earlier this week that 20 new projects are being funded by the Land for Maine’s Future (LMF) program. This will protect these lands and make them available for Mainers and visitors to enjoy. Last year, the governor’s budget included $40 million for the LMF, the first new funding in nearly a decade. This popular land conservation program has protected thousands of acres of forests, water access, working waterfronts, working farmlands, and more in all 16 Maine counties. The other good news is that Governor Mills announced yesterday a plan for $50 million in improvements, maintenance, and upgrades to our State Parks.
Last week we mentioned our 2022 Brookie Award winners, and this week, another one of the awardees, Kiara Frischkorn of Biddeford, is featured in today’s Portland Press Herald.
Watching the alewife runs in Maine in mid- to late May are always exciting. This year, if you weren’t able to get to see them in person, you can enjoy this photo journal from the Portland Press Herald of the run at Mill Brook in Westbrook.
Yesterday, the Department of Interior announced the phase-out of plastic water bottles and other items at national parks and other public lands under its jurisdiction.
And finally this week, take a few minutes to listen to our latest podcast, released today, in which our Advocacy Communications Director Colin Durrant speaks with NRCM Staff Scientist Nick Bennett about the proposed American Aquafarms project in Frenchman Bay, why NRCM and other groups oppose it, and the harm it could cause the environment.
Last month we featured a news story about avid angler Willie Grenier. No worries if you missed it as the Bangor Daily News recently did another story about Willie and his fishing on the Kennebec River.
Next month, NRCM will be celebrating the 2022 Brookie Award winners, six outstanding young environmentalists that are having a big impact on Maine’s environmental movement. One of this year’s Brookies, Anna Siegel, was featured in this Forecaster news story, for her work to protect the climate. And Greg LeClair of Waterville, founder of Maine Big Night, is featured in this column in the Kennebec Journal.
Several years ago, NRCM supported a bill to restore alewives in the St. Croix River. Now, another step toward a freeflowing St. Croix River has happened. The Passamaquoddy Tribe and State of Maine have signed a deal to protect this river (also known as the Schoodic River) and restore fish to this river. Learn more in this Maine Public story.
Speaking of restored fisheries, a recent Bangor Daily News story shares the good news that more Atlantic salmon are returning to this Penobscot River this year, after a not-so-great year in 2021.
And finally this week, the City of Belfast just tripled its electric car charging capacity as the residents there try to make the city energy independent. Learn more from the Bangor Daily News.
May 2022
We will start this week’s News & Noteworthy with some cool news from the Blue Hill area. Local residents are helping to divert food waste from local landfills, which benefits the climate as well as lessens the amount of material going into the landfills.
Some other news that falls into the “cool news” category is this WMTW news video of alewives making their way back into China Lake for the first time since the Revolutionary War!
Last week the Board of Environmental Protection was supposed to discuss the appeal of the Central Maine Power corridor permits, but COVID has caused a delay. Those discussions will now happen on July 20-21.
We mentioned the rezoning proposal for the Moosehead Lake region in our last N&N, but want to share a story from last week’s Bangor Daily News that includes quotes from NRCM’s Forests & Wildlife Director Melanie Sturm.
We want to share two climate-related stories from Maine Public. One is related to increasing high-speed broadband as a way to reduce vehicle use, which would help us reduce climate-changing pollution. The other is a lesson we can learn from centuries of Maine lake ice-out records.
In other climate news, filed under “not cool” news, scientists have reported that nearly 90 percent of the moose calves that they were tracking last year in Maine have died, wiped out by winter ticks, which have increased dramatically in Maine due to climate change.
As you know, NRCM and others oppose the proposed American Aquafarms salmon farm in Frenchman Bay, and this week, the Acadia National Park Superintendent warns of other potential effects if that farm is built.
Recently, NRCM Climate & Clean Energy Director Jack Shapiro spoke at a news conference in Portland, along with representatives of other organizations that support responsible offshore wind development in Maine.
In other renewable energy news, 20 companies across the state have joined a project to start on the path toward using 100% clean, renewable energy. Learn more in this Portland Press Herald news story.
This week, Maine’s US Senator Angus King and his National Parks Subcommittee Co-chair, US Representative Joe Neguse of Colorado called on Congress to increase funding for national park maintenance.
We want to end this week on a high note. Willie Grenier of Waterville shares his love of fishing on the Kennebec with the Morning Sentinel for this great story about a recent fishing trip he took on the river. Enjoy!
This week, the Maine Land Use Planning Commission shared a proposal for rezoning the Moosehead region. Hear from NRCM Forests & Wildlife Director Melanie Sturm about this proposal in this Maine Public news story.
More news from Maine’s North Woods: Read this Bangor Daily News op-ed by Steve Richardson, Vice President of Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters, about opportunities in the Katahdin region, thanks in part to the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument, established in 2016.
Here’s a fun follow-up article with photos from the Farmington Earth Day clean-up that NRCM staff and others participated in last month. We were happy to offer prizes to some participants mentioned in the article.
Last week, Governor Mills hosted a bill signing at the Maine State House, and one of the bills she signed into law was LD 1959, a bill to ensure grid planning and one that holds utilities accountable for their service. Read this story from Utility Dive to hear from NRCM Climate & Clean Energy Director Jack Shapiro about what this law will do. And then for more information about the benefits of this law, read Jack’s recent blog.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention warned people catching freshwater fish in certain parts of the state that they should not eat those fish because they are contaminated with PFAS (“forever chemicals”). There were several bills related to PFAS in soil on farms that were voted on this legislative session, and PFAS contamination has also caused the state to warn against eating meat from deer from certain areas, too.
This week, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court has been hearing two cases related to the proposed Central Maine Power (CMP) corridor through western Maine. One is about the use of public land for a piece of this transmission line to cross and the other is about the referendum passed by Maine voters last fall to oppose the project. Learn more about both cases in this Maine Public story.
Do you have a heat pump in your home? You aren’t alone. Many Mainers are installing heat pumps for both heating and cooling and find that they work well, even in our cold winter climate. Read this Grist story to learn more.
We will end this week with some good news, a follow-up to a story from last week about Pembroke in Washington County. We told you that residents were going to vote on whether or not to allow industrial-scale mineral mining in their community. The vote is in, and they voted overwhelmingly to pass an ordinance prohibiting large-scale mining, with a vote of 129-48!
We are going to start this week with a powerful op-ed by the Benton Alewife Warden, Richard Lawrence, about the importance of the health of the Kennebec River and why four dams on the river need to come out to protect the endangered Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish.
NRCM and other organizations are requesting a “rigorous review” by the federal government of potential effects on the environment of offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Maine before any sites are selected. The Gulf of Maine is already under threat from climate change with last year’s water temperatures the highest ever measured. If we’re guided by the best data and scientific research available, offshore wind, wildlife, and current ocean users can coexist as we build the clean renewable energy we need to respond to the climate crisis.
Did you know that people in the US only recycled about five percent of plastic waste in 2021? Read more in this Grist news story.
Residents of the town of Pembroke in Washington County are voting this week on a ban on industrial-scale mining, after Wolfden Resources had been considering a mining project there.
More solar projects are coming to Maine thanks to more than $10 million from the federal government. Learn about two of the projects in this AP story.
The University of Maine System announced plans to divest from all fossil fuels by 2030, with action happening to begin that process later this month. Learn more in this Maine Public story.
Maine and 15 other states have filed suit in order to get the US Postal Service to begin switching their fleet to electric vehicles.
April 2022
Last week on Earth Day, several NRCM staff members joined community members in Farmington (more than 100 people attended!) to clean-up the downtown — and all together, they collected more than 800 pounds of trash! Congrats and thank you to all involved.
There were some big wins for Maine’s environment during this session of the Legislature, including two bills to address climate change: one to create a Maine Climate Corps and the other will create a pilot program about climate change for Maine’s schools.
We recently shared our first blog in a series highlighting federal money for renewable energy programs and projects that will benefit Maine communities. Read about three Maine towns that received more than $10 million and what they are doing with it.
More good news about federal funding is that Maine has received more than a billion dollars for improvement of our infrastructure, and Landis Hudson, Executive Director of Maine Rivers, wrote an op-ed in the Maine Sunday Telegram sharing why she thinks Maine should use some of those funds for dam removal to protect Maine’s fish and the health of Maine’s rivers.
Last week, Maine Public focused their Maine Calling episode on food waste and its link to climate change. It also focused on how Maine is taking action. Listen to the full episode.
And finally this week, while many of us are thinking spring, the residents of Piscataquis County are learning that they will soon have a chance to comment on a proposal for a massive ski resort project in the Moosehead region. A public hearing has been scheduled for June 7. Learn more from the Bangor Daily News.
Happy Earth Day! We are going to start this week’s News & Noteworthy with some great news from the Maine Legislature, which should be wrapping up its session early next week:
- The bill to close the out-of-state waste loophole was signed into law by Governor Mills this week. This is great news for all Mainers, especially those living near the Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town.
- Governor Mills also signed a bill into law that will give the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point access to cleaner drinking water.
- Earlier this week, Senator Stacy Brenner (D-Cumberland) wrote an op-ed in support of a bill she sponsored (LD 1959) for utility accountability and grid planning. And, the bill passed both the House and Senate this week.
In other news:
This week, American Rivers joined NRCM and other organizations in calling for the removal of four dams on the Kennebec River between Waterville and Skowhegan to save the endangered Atlantic salmon.
The Bangor Daily News wrote an editorial for Earth Day about how it’s “now or never” to act on climate change.
One way to act on climate is by increasing renewable energy, and the City of Brewer has just approved five new solar projects.
Just across the bridge in Bangor, the American Lung Association has ranked that city’s air as some of the cleanest in the country.
NRCM and others oppose a large aquafarm in Frenchman Bay near Acadia National Park, and this week there is some big news about that project. The Maine Department of Marine Resources has stopped review of American Aquafarms’ permit application and will require the company to submit an entirely new application if it chooses to do so. That will add years to the permitting process if the company decides to move ahead.
Residents of the town of Pembroke in Washington County are pushing back against plans by Wolfden Resources to mine for silver there because of environmental and safety concerns.
To follow up last week’s news about the bill (LD 1639) to close the out-of-state waste loophole in Maine law, we will start this week’s N&N with the fantastic news that the bill passed through the House and Senate and is now on Governor Mills’ desk to sign. This article from Maine Public states that a spokesperson for the governor said she will sign the bill into law. Thanks to everyone who took action on this important bill!
Hannaford, a well-known supermarket chain if you live in Maine, announced a new goal to use only renewable power by 2024. Read more about the changes they have already made and will be making in this Portland Press Herald story.
Several southern Maine cities have announced plans to start using some electric buses starting later this spring. “When they are put into operation May 17, they will become the first fixed-route, all electric, zero emission buses in Maine,” according to this Portland Press Herald news story.
People in support of a bill (LD 906) that would help provide clean drinking water for the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point in Washington County gathered at the Maine State House for a rally earlier this week. Stay up to date on this bill as it moves through the Legislature by visiting our bill tracking page.
NRCM Climate & Clean Energy Director Jack Shapiro was one of the speakers at a news conference in Augusta earlier this week, calling on Maine legislators to pass bills that would increase renewable energy in Maine. He is quoted in this WGME-13 news story and video.
Another rally took place earlier this week across from the Maine State House. This rally was in support of an economic package being worked on in Congress that could have benefits for Mainers. The “Rally for Climate, Care, Kids, and Workers,” was cosponsored by NRCM and several other advocacy organizations.
And finally this week, House Speaker Ryan Fecteau and Representative Amy Arata coauthored this recent op-ed in support of LD 2003, a bill that would help Maine with our affordable housing crisis as well as climate action.
Maine’s forests provide our state with an important opportunity to store carbon, but according to a recent Spectrum News story, “’Maine’s ability to continue to store carbon in the future is going to depend on the ability to maintain the high forest cover that we currently have,’ said University of Maine associate professor William Livingston, the interim director of the School of Forest Resources.”
Another concern Mainers have related to a warming climate, is an increase in road hazards, including more potholes, due to the changing climate.
Ogechi Obi, a student at Bangor High School, is participating in the Maine Science Fair with her new biodegradable plastic. Wow! Read more about Ogechi and others participating in the science fair, and then listen to Ogechi who was a recent guest on our Frontline Voices podcast.
The City of Brewer planning board unanimously approved a new solar farm recently.
Speaking of renewable energy, the former Great Northern Paper Mill in Millinocket is looking for tenants in order to turn the site into a “hub for renewable energy jobs,” according to this Bangor Daily News story.
NRCM and other conservation organizations this week called on Brookfield Renewables to do more at their four dams on the Kennebec River to protect Atlantic salmon during their spring migration. Read more in this Morning Sentinel news story.
And let’s end with some great news! LD 1639, the bill to close the out-of-state waste loophole passed unanimously through the Maine Senate today.
