Read some highlights from this month’s news stories and opinion pieces related to the environment, including Maine’s air, land, water, and wildlife, in this February 2022 News & Noteworthy from the Natural Resources Council of Maine.
February 24, 2022
We are starting off this week’s News & Noteworthy with big congratulations to Portland’s Leeward Restaurant for its recent James Beard nominations. Just this week Leeward hosted a fundraiser in support of NRCM’s work to protect Maine. Thank you and congrats, Leeward!
Further down the coast, in York County, the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission is working on a regional climate change plan to help nine towns along the southern Maine coast plan and adapt for sea-level rise changes.
A Scientific American podcast introduces listeners to a Maine blueberry farm that is also a solar farm in Rockport. Listen to the podcast.
NRCM supports a bill in the Maine Legislature that would create a climate education pilot program in Maine’s public schools. Learn more about this bill and what it could do for Maine schools and students.
Two Maine legislators, Representative Vicki Doudera (D-Camden) and Senator Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) wrote a recent Portland Press Herald op-ed in support of a bill (LD 1467) that NRCM also supports, which would increase the amount of recycled plastic required in plastic bottles.
As part of its Climate Driven series, Maine Public shares this story about the changes in bird populations in Maine due to our state’s warming climate. Learn more.
Last week we congratulated Eben Sypitkowski on his new job at TNC’s director of land management. This week, we end with a story about his old job as director of Baxter State Park, for which the Baxter State Park Authority is seeking applicants.
February 17, 2022
February 10, 2022
NRCM Sustainable Maine Director Sarah Nichols was a guest on WVOM radio this morning, talking about a bill (LD 1639) to close a loophole in Maine law that currently allows out-of-state waste to fill up our State-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill. Listen to the full interview. The bill received bipartisan support as it was voted out of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee as “Ought to Pass” by a vote of 11-2 earlier this week.
Congratulations to Efficiency Maine for receiving national recognition for its heat pump initiative. The award was presented by the Association of Energy Services Professionals.
While we are talking about clean energy, a solar project proposed for Kennebec County could power 30,000 Maine homes. Learn more about this project.
After two years of not having a municipal recycling program, some towns in Hancock County have once again made recycling available.
A new year-round ski resort in the Moosehead region is raising some concern from area residents who are concerned that it may be too large a project. The Land Use Planning Commission will be discussing this project.
We haven’t mentioned the Central Maine Power proposed transmission corridor for a while in News & Noteworthy. We will end this week with an update, three months after Mainers overwhelmingly voted to oppose the project. Hear from NRCM Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim and others about our work to ensure that this project doesn’t move forward.
February 3, 2022
If you are someone who puts things in a recycle bin in the “hopes” that those materials will somehow get processed into new items, you are someone who “wishcycles.” Did you know that doing that can actually make recycling harder to do? Learn more from the Washington Post.
Maine’s ecological reserve system isn’t the most well-known program in the state, but it’s among our most important. Read a recent op-ed by University of Maine at Farmington professor Drew Barton. And then listen to NRCM’s latest Frontline Voices podcast to hear more from Barton.
NRCM and other conservation organizations have supported the Land for Maine’s Future program for decades. Last year’s budget funding added $40 million over four years to fund the LMF program, after more than a decade of no funding. The Bangor Daily News editorial board agrees that this program is good for Maine. Read more about five projects that recently received LMF funding.
Several colleges in Maine have launched a new effort to address climate change — both on their campuses and in their communities. Learn more about the project, called “Maine Campuses Won’t Wait.”
And to end this week’s news on a high note, the Environmental Protection Agency has reversed another action taken by the former Trump Administration and will restart enforcement of mercury emission limits from power plants.
