Clean air is essential for healthy, happy lives. Clean, renewable energy helps ensure clean air. NRCM works for policies and initiatives that will improve Maine's air quality and reduce global warming pollution throughout the state and region.
NRCM’s climate and clean energy work is focused on where we can have the greatest impact: cleaner cars and trucks, clean and renewable energy production, and greater energy efficiency.
Our work in these key areas is critical to reducing health and environmental problems already plaguing our state. These include high asthma rates, more “bad air days,” rising sea levels due to climate change that threaten coastal communities, and threats to our fall foliage, skiing, and our vital tourism-based industry.
NRCM makes certain that Maine's elected officials and decision-makers are kept up to date about information related to climate change pollution, clean energy technologies, and steps Maine can take to ensure clean air.
As CMP Transmission Line Plan Charges Ahead, Opposition to the Project Grows in Maine
By Fred Bever Maine Public news story Central Maine Power (CMP) says that it is ready to negotiate the terms of its bid to build and upgrade 145-miles of high-power transmission lines that would bring electricity from Canada’s Hydro Quebec dam system to Massachusetts customers. The move comes as regulatory hearings in Maine and Massachusetts Read More
New Survey: Maine Electric Car Owners Love Their Cars, Save Money on Fuel
Next steps: Get the word out, add charging stations NRCM News Release Today the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) released the results of its second comprehensive survey of Maine’s registered electric car owners. The survey was mailed to every electric car owner in Maine –1,300 of them – an impressive 33% of them responded. Read More
Quebec Hydro Project Could Spoil a Pristine Maine Wilderness
By Janice Cooper, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed In my younger days, I canoed and rafted down many American rivers, including the Allagash and the mother of all whitewater rapids, the Colorado. I held on for dear life as we tossed our way through the Grand Canyon, thinking, “There is no better Read More
South Portland’s Tar Sands Ban Upheld in a ‘David vs. Goliath’ Pipeline Battle
Citing Maine’s ‘home rule authority’ to protect public health, the small city took on Big Oil, which lined up behind a company challenging its tar sands ban. By Sabrina Shankman Inside Climate News news story A federal judge has ruled that the coastal city of South Portland, Maine, did not violate the U.S. Constitution when Read More
Feds to give $2M to Add Electric Buses to Portland Fleet
The Associated Press Bangor Daily News news story The Maine Department of Transportation is slated to get more than $2 million in federal money to help pay for electric buses in the Portland area. The transportation department worked with other organizations, including Greater Portland Metro, to submit a proposal for the grant. The money is Read More
South Portland’s “Clear Skies” Ordinance Survives Challenge as Federal Judge Finds It Constitutional
Portland Pipe Line Corp. had sued to overturn the ordinance adopted in 2014 to prohibit the bulk loading of crude oil onto tankers on the city’s waterfront. by Randy Billings, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story A federal court ruled Friday that a South Portland ordinance prohibiting bulk loading of crude oil onto tankers Read More
Critics Question Plan for CMP Power Line through Western Maine
by Steve Collins, Staff Writer Sun Journal news story LEWISTON — Whether Central Maine Power should get permission to construct its proposed 145-mile electrical transmission line between Quebec and Lewiston drew sharp comments Wednesday during a session sponsored by the Sierra Club at City Hall. The $950 million project would deliver power generated by Hydro-Québec Read More
Quebec Hydro Project a Bad Deal for Maine
By Lisa Pohlmann, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed Central Maine Power is pushing for a huge transmission line that would cross large areas of Maine’s undeveloped North Woods, including the famous Kennebec Gorge. The line would allow Hydro-Quebec, a government-owned Canadian company, to sell its electricity at a premium in Massachusetts. The Read More
Trump Administration Pushes to Gut Air Pollution Rules for Nation’s Dirtiest Power Plants
Statement of Dylan Voorhees, Clean Energy Director, Natural Resources Council of Maine “The Trump Administration’s proposal to roll back air pollution limits is bad news for everyone who breathes. The proposal is particularly bad news for Mainers, since so much of the air pollution that affects Maine people comes from upwind power plants that would Read More
