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.

Battle Over Maine Solar Energy Policies Continues
by Fred Bever, staff writer Maine Public news story Advocates for expanding solar power’s footprint in Maine turned out in force Monday to call on regulators to preserve policies they say have fostered the industry’s growth. They’re also requesting that any changes be left to the next Legislature. Earlier this year, the state’s Public Utilities Read More

Maine’s Attorney General Among 18 AGs Defending EPA’s Clean Power Plan as Federal Appeals Court Hears Polluter Lawsuit Today
NRCM news release Today, outside the federal court building in Portland, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills and health and environmental leaders spoke in support of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which is being challenged in federal courts by a coalition of polluters and their allies. Today at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., Read More

Clean Power Plan Litigation in U.S. Court of Appeals
My remarks at today’s news conference about Clean Power Plan litigation in the U.S. Court of Appeals: Right now, judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC are hearing oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by polluters and their allies against the EPA’s historic Clean Power Plan. I am proud to be joined Read More

State’s Warming Waters Create Both Reasons to Change and Opportunities
The success of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative shows we can be green and create good jobs. By George Lapointe and Tom Tietenberg Portland Press Herald op-ed We know that the threat of climate disruption to Maine is real, in part because we are experiencing early warning signs. The science is also clear that the Read More

Puffin Chicks In Gulf Of Maine’s Largest Colony Starve To Death At Record Rate
By Colin Woodard, staff writer Portland Press Herald news story Machias Seal Island, home of the largest puffin colony in the Gulf of Maine, has had the worst breeding season ever recorded, with the vast majority of chicks starving to death in their burrows. The disaster followed a sudden drop in the puffins’ food supply Read More

Study Shows Solar Saves Money for All Ratepayers in Maine by Reducing Peak Demand
Costly Strain on New England Utility Grid Usually Peaks Around First Week of August News release Portland, ME – An updated analysis of the “value of solar” power in Maine shows that solar installations within the state cut electricity prices for everyone in Maine who pays an electric bill, by reducing peak demand on the Read More

Rising Sea Levels Could Wash Away $3.1B in Maine Property
By Darren Fishell Bangor Daily News news story If sea levels rise six feet by the year 2100 as projected, that would put an estimated $3.1 billion in Maine residential real estate under water. The property site Zillow matched up its proprietary data on current home values with federal projections of how sea level rise Read More

Advocates: Pollution Rules Necessary to Protect Acadia’s Air
by A.J. Higgins MPBN news story Millions of Americans visit Maine’s Acadia National Park each year expecting a quality outdoor experience featuring some of the state’s most iconic landscapes. But unhealthy air quality in the region is forcing some hikers to change their plans. Rich MacDonald, a registered Maine guide and co-owner of the Natural Read More

Maine Group Calls for Clean Air Act Improvements
by BDN staff writer Bill Trotter Bangor Daily News news story ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, Maine — A group of environmental advocates met Tuesday at the summit of Cadillac Mountain to draw attention to what they say are needed improvements to the federal Clean Air Act, according to a statement released Tuesday. Representatives of the Natural Read More