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.
NECEC’s Flawed Conservation Plan Should Not Have Been Approved
News release from Appalachian Mountain Club, Maine Audubon, Natural Resources Council of Maine, and Trout Unlimited The Conservation Plan intended to mitigate for the impacts of a 53-mile-long transmission corridor fails to meet the permit requirements Augusta, Maine – A Conservation Plan filed by Central Maine Power (CMP) and approved earlier this week by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as mitigation for the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line fails to Read More
Workers Call on Federal Government to Stop Blocking Offshore Wind During National “Yes to Wind” Week
(MAINE) – Workers on active offshore wind projects in the Atlantic Ocean, including a Maine resident, join clean energy and organized labor groups during the national “Yes to Wind” Week of Action in calling on the federal government to immediately withdraw its opposition to offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine and southern New Read More
CMP Rate Hike Would Deliver Nearly $700M in Profits to Shareholders
Acadia Center | Conservation Law Foundation | Natural Resources Council of Maine (Augusta, ME) — The five-year spending proposal by Central Maine Power (CMP) collects an additional $1.7 billion from Maine electricity customers for the stated purpose of investments to the electric grid, but according to new analysis, nearly $700 million would be delivered directly Read More
How Mainers are Using Electric Cars and Trucks
Mainers deserve to choose the vehicle that works best for them. For some of us, that’s a truck hauling gear or navigating rough roads in remote areas. For others, it’s a sedan for a daily commute or running errands. For those that can’t afford a car, it may be a bike or a bus. Thousands Read More
What You Should Know About Offshore Wind in Maine
Rather than addressing the root causes of high energy costs for Mainers (hint: it’s our over-reliance on fossil fuels), some opponents of clean energy have chosen to spread misinformation. This has led to widespread confusion without offering solutions to the energy affordability issues facing Maine families every day. One favorite target for these false Read More
New Report: Offshore Wind Would Have Lowered Electricity Prices 11% Last Winter
(Augusta, ME) – New England electricity prices would have been 11% lower last winter if contracted offshore wind projects had been operational, according to a new study by Daymark Energy Advisors. Tens of millions of dollars in lower costs would have been reflected on the electricity bills of Maine households and businesses. The report, which Read More
How Federal Transportation Funding Can Deliver More Choices for Mainers
How we design and build our transportation system has huge implications for health, equity, and the environment. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) is the largest source of federal funding to support Maine’s transportation network, but historic underinvestment has left Maine’s roads and bridges in a persistent state of disrepair and Read More
How EPA’s Proposal to Scrap Endangerment Finding Impacts Maine
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week announced that it plans to scrap its legal authority to address the threat of climate change. It’s an inexplicable move in an era of rising temperatures, escalating extreme weather, and climate-linked damage to infrastructure, communities, and human life. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is proposing to overturn the Read More
Rooftop Solar Keeps the Lights On and Costs Down During Heat Waves
June 24, 2025, was the hottest day in a record-breaking heat wave that swept New England and pushed demand on our regional power grid to near-record highs. It’s exactly during heat waves like this, when demand for electricity surges due to air conditioning, that the capacity of our electricity system is strained to its Read More
