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.

Group Wants MDI to Go Fossil Fuel Free Within 15 Years
By Susan Sharon MPBN news story It’s official — the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization has confirmed what other agencies including NASA have said earlier: 2015 was the hottest year on record. The global surface temperature is 1 degree Celsius above the preindustrial era, which the agency says makes voluntary commitments reached in the Paris Read More

Study Finds Gulf of Maine Warming Faster Than Thought
By Sean Horgan, The Daily News of Newburyport Portland Press Herald news story The news just keeps getting worse for cold-temperature fish such as cod in the ever-warming waters of the Gulf of Maine. A new study, conducted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers and appearing in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Oceans, Read More

Belfast Kicks Off the New Year with More Solar Power
by Andy O’Brien Free Press news story The City of Belfast rang in the New Year last week by hooking up the city to 396 newly installed photovoltaic solar panels on the site of the former dump, off of Pitcher Road. The new 122 kilowatt solar array on the old capped landfill along with the Read More

About 200 People Brave the Cold for Annual Polar Bear Dip
by Grady Trimble, WCSH WCSH-6 news story PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — About 200 people braved the chilly weather on New Year’s Eve and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean at the East End Beach. Organizers with the Natural Resources Council of Maine said the 8th annual Polar Bear Dip and Dash raised about $25,000. The money Read More

Leaders of Nearly 50 Maine Clean Energy Businesses Urge Collins, King to Defend EPA Clean Power Plan
Action on climate-changing pollution critical to Maine’s economy, way of life NRCM News Release Today, clean energy business leaders gathered in Portland at ReVision Energy’s headquarters to release a letter urging Maine Senators Susan Collins and Angus King to continue their support for the Clean Power Plan. If ongoing efforts to repeal it are unsuccessful, the plan Read More

Citizens, Workers, Businesses, Towns, & Others Urge Adoption of Strong Solar Policy for Maine
Say Maine Can’t Afford to Fall Further Behind on Solar Power & Jobs News Release Hallowell, ME – A diverse group of people and organizations gathered today at the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to urge policymakers to develop and adopt a comprehensive solar policy that can move Maine out of last place in the Read More

NRCM Weighs In On Obama Rejection of Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
Statement of Dylan Voorhees, Clean Energy Director, Natural Resources Council of Maine NRCM news release Today, President Obama announced that he has rejected the request from a Canadian company to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have transported tars sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. “Today’s announcement by President Read More

Maine Business Owners Explore Challenges, Opportunities of Climate Change
During a South Portland panel discussion moderated by U.S. Sen. Angus King, they share examples of how sustainability measures can cut costs while making companies greener. By Kevin Miller, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story SOUTH PORTLAND — Several Maine business owners said Friday that adapting to climate change doesn’t have to be costly Read More

NRCM Blasts LePage Administration on Energy Efficiency Policies
By Mal Leary MPBN news story In what may be the opening skirmish in a long battle over the three-year budget for Efficiency Maine, the Natural Resources Council of Maine is accusing the LePage Administration of seeking to reduce funding for weatherization and for home heating system improvements. The LePage Administration says that is just Read More