Weather-related power outages on the rise

MAINE MONITOR • April 26, 2024

A new analysis shows that more major power outages across Maine, the Northeast and the U.S. are happening as a result of bad weather. The data from the nonprofit Climate Central shows an aging power grid under pressure as climate change brings more extreme storms in all seasons. “Major outages are events that affect at least 50,000 customers (homes or businesses) or interrupt service of 300 megawatts or more,” Climate Central says in a release about the analysis, based on federal data from utilities’ required reports of these large outages. The analysis found that 80% of such events from 2000 to 2023 were weather-related, with a twofold increase from 2014 to 2023 compared to 2000 to 2009.

Mills vetoes bill requiring developers of clean energy projects to work with unions

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 26, 2024

Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill on Friday that would have required companies leasing state land for clean energy projects to work with unions hoping to represent their workers. The bill, L.D. 373, is aimed at the offshore wind power terminal and manufacturing facility the Mills administration aims to build in Searsport. Mills said she vetoed the bill because it contained ambiguous language and was too far-reaching in its scope.

Groups say Mills’ veto of energy-labor bill will weaken state efforts to tackle climate change

MAINE MORNING STAR • April 26, 2024

Gov. Janet Mills on Friday vetoed a bill that union and climate leaders argued would ensure clean energy projects on state land aren’t disrupted by labor disputes. The Democratic governor, however, said the legislation was overly ambiguous. Advocates of the bill castigated the action as yet another “anti-worker, anti-union veto” by the governor. 

Fewer people visited Maine in 2023, but they stayed longer and spent more money

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 25, 2024

According to a report from the state Office of Tourism released Thursday, Maine had 15.3 million visitors last year, a 0.6% decline from 2022, but the number of visitor days increased 3.9% with the average length of stay being 4.8 nights, a 6.7% jump over 2022. Travel to the state during the shoulder seasons accounted for 44% of the visitors, up 3.4 percentage points from 2022. Tourism spending in 2023 totaled $9.1 billion, a 4.9% increase fueled by a 5.3% increase in spending per visitor per trip. Those travelers generated a $16.4 billion impact to Maine’s economy.

Fingers crossed, Waterville and Augusta will avoid impact of browntail moth this year

MORNING SENTINEL • April 26, 2024

The cities of Waterville and Augusta are expected to dodge the brunt of browntail moth troubles this year as mitigation efforts the past few years have apparently worked to alleviate the problem. The city of Waterville has been aggressively tracking and treating trees on city property for browntail moth over the past few years by contracting with a company to clip nests from trees, insert treatment plugs or inserts into trees and spray them with an organic substance that is not harmful to humans. In Augusta, the city in recent years had workers out all winter long, clipping browntail moth nests from trees and inserting plugs into them. In the winter of 2021-22, the city put a huge effort into mitigating browntail, especially in areas where schools, parks, play areas and walking trails are located. No spray has been used on browntail.

Letter: Another Earth Day without much change

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • April 26, 2024

Another Earth Day is upon us. Of nations who have pledged to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the United States gets a big fat F on its report card. Most Americans want to drive as inefficiently as they can, driving vehicles much larger than required 98% of the time. Also one of the most significant impacts on changing the climate is our processing of meat. Americans love animals! America can claim the number one spot again for the nation that produces the most fossil fuels per person. ~ Tom Turner, Augusta

Rockweed recovery study by UMaine graduate student and professors challenged by other researchers

MAINE PUBLIC • April 25, 2024

A study on rockweed recovery released last year by a UMaine graduate student and professors is being challenged by other marine researchers. The study found that rockweed biomass recovered from harvesting in just one year. Dr. Robin Hadlock Seeley, a retired marine ecologist and co-founder of the Maine Rockweed Coalition, said her team found flaws in how the study was designed and how the data were analyzed. Dr. Elliott Johnston, the UMaine study's author, said he believes the critics misunderstand the objective of his study, which was based on irregular, patchy cuts, and the outcomes of those varied harvests was the point of his research.

Amtrak planners identify 3 possible sites for new train station in Portland

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 25, 2024

The operator of the Amtrak Downeaster on Thursday outlined three sites being considered for a new Portland station along the main rail line between Boston and Brunswick. The rail authority says building a new Portland stationwill increase the passenger train’s efficiency and appeal to travelers.

Fish Migration Tales, May 1

MAINE AUDUBON • April 25, 2024

Each spring, millions of fish return to Maine’s coastal rivers to spawn. For thousands of years, these fish runs have helped humans build and sustain communities, economies, and cultures, connections to which we all share even as dams, pollution, and other threats have limited habitat and diminished historic numbers and species of fish. As scientists, conservationists, and anglers seek to protect these rivers and streams, it is their stories, both new and old, which carry the memories and connect new generations. Join Maine Audubon and The Nature Conservancy in Maine for an evening of storytelling with scientists, an activist, and a Wabanaki harvester, who will help us all relate to this phenomenon that still defines time and place. At Gilsland Farm, Falmouth, and on Zoom, May 1, 7 pm.

Brunswick educators receive funding for programs

TIMES RECORD • April 25, 2024

The Brunswick Community Education Foundation awarded 14 grants totaling $27,000 to educators this year. The grants, which will be used for classroom and school enrichment programs, were sent to five of Brunswick’s schools. Projects at Brunswick High School received six grants. Social studies teacher and department head Andrew Kosak received two of the three grants awarded to Brunswick Junior High for a project, which teaches kids how to use drones to study Brunswick geography.

Strict new EPA rules would force coal-fired power plants to capture emissions or shut down

ASSOCIATED PRESS • April 25, 2024

Coal-fired power plants would be forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a rule issued Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency. New limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric plants are the Biden administration’s most ambitious effort yet to roll back planet-warming pollution from the power sector, the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change. The rules are a key part of President Joe Biden’s pledge to eliminate carbon pollution from the electricity sector by 2035 and economy-wide by 2050. The plan is likely to be challenged by industry groups and Republican-leaning states.

Tick expert offers advice for increasingly popular ‘No Mow May’

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 25, 2024

Growing numbers of people are leaving their yards unmowed for “No Mow May,” the same month when Maine’s tick season goes into full swing. No Mow May is a voluntary pledge that formally reached Maine in 2022 after beginning in Wisconsin several years before. Participants aim to provide habitat and pollen for early-season pollinators by mowing their lawns less or not at all for the month. The practice also provides habitat for ticks, which like to live in long grass. Letting your yard grow can provide them more habitat and may lead to more risk. If you’re concerned, try adding pollinator-benefitting plants to one area of your yard and continue to mow the places where you spend time.

Mills opens public comment on offshore wind plan

MAINE MORNING STAR • April 25, 2024

Maine initiated its next step in the process of procuring offshore wind by asking for public input to inform future planning. According to a news release Wednesday from the Governor’s Energy Office, the state issued a Request for Information (RFI) that will be open until June 21 for members of the public to comment on the state’s plan for offshore wind development. The document has more than a dozen questions the public can respond to about implementation, fishery protection, ports and more; however, it is not soliciting actual offshore wind project proposals at this time. 

The Arctic is Greening: A View from Baffin Island, Apr 29

BOWDOIN COLLEGE • April 29, 2024

Climate warming is initiating several major changes to polar regions. In the Arctic, warmer and wetter conditions are causing landscapes to green, as treelines move northward and vegetation becomes more productive. Arctic greening has the potential to change local ecosystems, northern communities, and the Earth system. In this presentation, Bowdoin Professor Phil Camill will offer insights on arctic greening worldwide and will showcase, with a photo tour and some preliminary data, the view from one of his research sites: Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. At Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Visual Arts Center, Beam Classroom, April 29, 7:30 pm.

Fort Halifax Park in Winslow to reopen Friday after monthslong closure

MORNING SENTINEL • April 25, 2024

Fort Halifax Park, which sits at the confluence of the Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers, has been closed to the public since the Dec. 18 flood damaged the park’s bandstand, washed away benches and took chunks of earth as it went. The park will reopen this week while the town continues to work to replace the stage and rebuild other amenities.

Understanding the Air We Breathe

COLBY COLLEGE • April 25, 2024

Associate Professor of Chemistry Karena McKinney studies biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), or in layman’s terms, the emissions from trees. “As an atmospheric chemist, I’m looking at chemical processes related to air quality and climate. My research has been focused specifically on plant emissions of organic compounds, which affect atmospheric composition, and how they interact with other, human-made emissions,” said McKinney. “Forest emissions contribute to small particles that form in the atmosphere that generally have a cooling effect on climate. As climate changes, the trees change, which impacts the emissions, and it becomes a feedback loop. I want to understand how it’s changing.”

Lawmakers, advocates at odds with Mills over right to sue in farmworker minimum wage bill

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 25, 2024

Lawmakers and advocates who support a bill to give farmworkers protections under Maine’s minimum wage law are frustrated by a veto from Gov. Janet Mills, who has argued that lawmakers’ changes to the bill would jeopardize farmers’ financial security. Mills’ veto of L.D. 2273 on Tuesday hinged on an amendment made in the Labor and Housing Committeeto strike a provision in the original bill that placed enforcement duties with the Maine Department of Labor rather than allow farmworkers to pursue private litigation in response to alleged violations. The governor said she offered a compromise that would allow employees to seek a right-to-sue letter from the Department of Labor, but it was rejected by the committee. In order to override the governor’s veto, lawmakers would need two-thirds support in each chamber, which is unlikely.

Opinion: Renewable gas will help Maine reach its climate goals

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 25, 2024

Recently a proposal called for banning the expansion of gas distribution systems in Maine even though natural gas is lower emissions and lower cost than other fuel sources. While I’m relieved the proposal in the Legislature was rejected, it remains troubling. As a farmer, I feed the state, my family, my friends and my neighbors. In 2019, Summit Natural Gas approached us to create one of the nation’s first community dairy digesters at our farm. Today, that digester is providing many economic, energy and environmental benefits by capturing the methane from the manure at our farm and using it to create a carbon-negative gas that takes more emissions out of the air in the form of captured methane than is put back into the air when burned at the burner tip. I hope we can once again lead in Maine’s way by preserving energy choice and making sure the RNG facility at our farm isn’t Maine’s last. ~ Jenni Tilton-Flood, Flood Brothers Farm, Clinton

High Peaks Alliance welcomes seasonal recreation ranger

DAILY BULLDOG • April 24, 2024

Matthew Kusper has been involved in the conservation industry since 2018 when he joined his first Conservation Corps. Since then, Kusper has embarked on trail projects in the Carolinas, Alabama, Virginia, Kentucky, Colorado, and Maine. First exposed to the highlands of western Maine during his thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2019, he returned to the region in 2021 to lead the MATC’s trail crews for two seasons. Kusper will oversee the trails, campsites, and Leave No Trace outreach in the Bureau of Parks and Lands’ Bigelow Preserve & Flagstaff Lake Public Land, Crocker Mountain, Mt. Abraham, and newly conserved Barnjum areas.

Bethel artist Mattie Rose Templeton illustrates importance of dark skies

BETHEL CITIZEN • April 24, 2024

Bethel artist Mattie Rose Templeton grew up off-grid “in the dark” and rather ironically is the illustrator for the Appalachian Mountain Club’s first children’s book, “If You Can See The Dark.” The book teaches children about the importance of dark skies for animals, plants and people. She said the book, in part, promotes AMC’s Maine Woods International Dark Sky Park at the edge of the North Maine Woods. It’s an expanse of more than 14,000 square kilometers of largely uninhabited forest land that stretches from Monson, Maine, to the Canadian border. According to the AMC website, the region is one of the darkest places remaining on the East Coast.