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.
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
Shellfish Can’t Keep Up with Shifting Ocean Chemistry
by Colin Woodard, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story In seawater tanks in a refrigerated room at the Darling Marine Center, the baby mussels are thriving. Two months ago they were near-invisible larvae, swimming around in the tanks. Now tens of thousands of the tiny mollusks, each just a few millimeters long, have attached Read More
Polar Bear Dip & Dash: It’s Just “Mind Over Matter”
My breath rose in clouds in front of my face as I rubbed my double-mittened hands together and looked up at the enormous digital clock above the city buildings: 10:45am. Fifteen minutes until the race start. Then…the time display was replaced by the temperature: 5 degrees. It was December 31st in 2013, and I sat in the Read More
Gulf of Maine’s Cold-craving Marine Species Forced to Retreat to Deeper Waters
by Colin Woodard, staff writer Portland Press Herald news story For 178 years, dams stood across the Penobscot River here, obstructing salmon and other river-run fish from reaching the watershed’s vast spawning grounds, which extend all the way to the Quebec border. Now, two years after the dam’s removal, the salmon’s proponents fear the fish Read More
Portland on Track to Be a “Top Tier” Sustainable City
New Report Profiles the People and Organizations Making It Happen NRCM news release Portland, ME—Portland is making great strides in promoting local foods, minimizing waste, using clean energy efficiently, connecting people with nature, and incorporating environmental sustainability into daily life. According to a new report released today by the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), Read More
As Gulf of Maine Warms, Puffins Recast as Canaries in a Coal Mine
by Colin Woodard, staff writer Portland Press Herald news story The puffins are having a better year. On a late June day, the adults are landing on the rocky shore of this 7-acre bird sanctuary in flights of three or four, their bright red and yellow beaks stuffed with sand lance, tiny haddock and white Read More
