62-lot senior neighborhood proposed on rural Monmouth site

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • January 7, 2025

Residents will have a chance to weigh in during a public hearing Thursday on a proposed 62-unit senior housing development on 33 acres of undeveloped land between Academy Road and Main Street. The project would include 62 identical two-bedroom, single-family homes for people 55 and older. Some residents nearby don’t want the plans to move forward. Construction on the site would disturb 12,570 square feet of wetlands, an area large enough that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection would issue a permit for the project under the state’s Natural Resources Protection Act. As part of the permitting process, Michaud’s company would then pay almost $66,000 in fees to the Maine DEP in lieu of more traditional on-site environmental impact mitigation efforts.

Farmington alliance to host Rockefeller Conservation intern

CENTRAL MAINE • December 7, 2024

The High Peaks Alliance has been selected as a host for the ninth annual Richard G. Rockefeller Conservation Internship Program, run by Maine Coast Heritage Trust. This marks the first time the alliance will welcome a Rockefeller intern. This summer, a Maine college student will embark on a 10-week conservation adventure with the alliance. The intern will be immersed in various aspects of land stewardship, from trail maintenance to community engagement and crucial behind-the-scenes work.

Gov. Mills introduces bill to respond to severe weather fueled by climate change

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 7, 2025

Gov. Janet Mills introduced her first bill of the new legislative session Tuesday with a proposal to help Maine respond to severe weather and the long-term impacts of climate change. Mills’ proposal, which is sponsored by legislative leaders from both parties, includes a grant program that would help residents make investments to safeguard their homes against extreme weather. It makes one-time investments in the Maine Emergency Management Agency and utilizes federal funds to establish a new state office to reduce storm damage and protect infrastructure.

Opinion: The Bangor Mall was never a good idea

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 7, 2025

Over the years, criticisms of the Bangor Mall as something that contributed to the decline of Bangor’s downtown were often met with the response that the mall was the new downtown. This is nonsense. Downtowns are public places, democratic places: Everyone has a right to be there. A mall, by contrast, is a private space. A real downtown is a commons, a gathering place that offers more than an opportunity to buy stuff. It has architectural interest, places to repose and infinite opportunities for people watching. The mall is an architectural study in sterility. Now the mall is dying, and it’s an ugly death. So what is to become of the Bangor Mall property? I’ve long thought that it would make a fine cow pasture. ~ Robert Klose, Orono

Letter: Ski trails closure serves as a reminder

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 7, 2025

I learned today that Smiling Hill Farm will cease its cross-country skiing operations because “of the increasing lack of snow in our area.” Smiling Hill Farm is where I discovered cross-country skiing as a child, and where I rediscovered it as an adult. This news, paired with the shelving of a plan to make a large swath of Smiling Hill Farm a highway connector, has highlighted how important it is to conserve green spaces. Once they are gone, they are gone forever, and their importance to our culture and communal well-being cannot be understated. Green spaces are also at risk due to climate change, and this news highlights the importance of electing representatives who will take action to mitigate climate change. We are already losing recreational spaces, and without making conservation and climate action a priority, we will lose more. ~ Julianna Hansen, Acton

‘Forever chemicals’ are polluting water in an unexpected way — via prescription drugs

WASHINGTON POST • January 6, 2025

The widespread use of pharmaceuticals in America is introducing even more toxic “forever chemicals” into the environment through wastewater, according to a study released Monday, and large municipal wastewater treatment plants are not capable of fully filtering them out. The plants’ inability to remove compounds known as organofluorines from wastewater before it enters drinking water supplies becomes even more pronounced during droughts and could affect up to 23 million people, scientists wrote.

Hillandale ends egg farm operations in Turner

SUN JOURNAL • January 6, 2025

The Hillandale Farm shut down its poultry-raising facilities permanently last month, state Sen. Jeff Timberlake of Turner confirmed Monday. “Basically, they can’t afford to do business in Maine,” Timberlake said. “It’s gonna affect all farming in the state of Maine because there was an awful lot of dairy farmers around the state who used the chicken manure from Hillandale to spread on their cornfields to grow corn.”

In 2024, solar contributed to the New England grid like never before

MAINE PUBLIC • January 6, 2025

ISO New England is reporting that for the first time in a single year, it has recorded over 100 days in which energy demand actually went down in the middle of the day due to solar use.

Conservation group urges better fish passage for Brunswick dam

MAINE PUBLIC • January 6, 2025

Conservation groups see an opportunity to restore migratory fish on the Androscoggin River as a hydropower dam in Brunswick goes through federal relicensing. Brookfield Renewable wants to keep the dam operating after its license expires in 2029. But critics say its current fish passage is ineffective and are pressing the company to consider all alternatives to improve passage. Free the Andro, a recently established coalition of local and national conservation groups argue the 40-year-old dam blocks Atlantic Salmon, shad and other fish from traveling the river to spawn. "It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, and multiple generations are going to either benefit or not benefit from the decisions made in the next five years around this relicensing," said organizer Chip Spies, a Brunswick resident.

Rumford mill, town still probing Dec. 10 brown snow event

RUMFORD FALLS TIMES • January 6, 2025

The investigation into the release of black liquor into the air Dec. 10 from the ND Paper mill, which resulted in brown snow, is ongoing and the town continuing to work with the mill on a resolution. The status update followed a report from Maine Environmental Laboratory that on Dec. 19 there was a somewhat elevated pH on the Three Fields Complex.

President Biden Protects America’s Coasts from Future Oil and Gas Leasing

WHITE HOUSE • January 6, 2025

Today President Biden will take action to protect the entire U.S. East coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, and additional portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska from future oil and natural gas leasing. In protecting more than 625 million acres of the U.S. ocean from offshore drilling, President Biden has determined that the environmental and economic risks and harms that would result from drilling in these areas outweigh their limited fossil fuel resource potential. With these withdrawals, President Biden is protecting coastal communities, marine ecosystems, and local economies – including fishing, recreation, and tourism – from oil spills and other impacts of offshore drilling.

Group calls for removal or redesign of Brunswick, Topsham dam for fish passage

TIMES RECORD • January 6, 2025

National and local conservation groups have joined together as the “Free the Andro” coalition to push for open water flows on a major river that winds between Brunswick and Topsham. The group — formed by Maine Rivers, American Rivers and the Merrymeeting Bay Chapter of Trout Unlimited — announced Monday that it plans to fight for “unfettered native fish passage at the Brunswick-Topsham dam,” located just upstream of the Frank J. Wood Bridge. The group is calling for either dam removal or redesign as the dam’s license comes up for renewal.

From boat sizes to waitlists, what lobster industry changes say about where fishery is headed

MAINE MORNING STAR • January 6, 2025

The threat of climate change and more restrictive right whale protections – as well as several years of more modest landing totals – have some in the lobster industry second-guessing their future in the business, yielding subtle, but real, changes in the makeup of the fishery. “There are fewer variable professional fishermen than there were 20 years ago, but there are more fishermen fishing full-time, offshore,” said Theresa Burnham, a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Maine. “Licenses overall are decreasing over time, as well. So the question is: Who is remaining?” Burnham is one of a handful of researchers looking at social indicators related to the lobster fishing industry for clues as to how the fishery is changing and what those changes might mean for the broader economy.

Maine electricity bills increased again this month

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 6, 2025

Central Maine Power Co. customers began paying 7% more in their monthly bills Jan. 1 to help fund $3.3 billion of upgrades to transmission lines, poles and other equipment in New England. Versant Power ratepayers can also expect increases, though smaller, later this year. Federal regulators are apportioning about $280 million of the region’s costs to Maine’s two major utilities, with the remainder assigned to utilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The costs are divided based on load, or how much electricity each service area uses. New England’s transmission is a nearly 9,000-mile system.

7 things to expect from Maine’s new Legislature

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 6, 2025

EXCERPT: While the deadline to file bills is not until Jan. 10, lawmakers also are likely to resume debates on topics including climate change. House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, said Republicans want to repeal Maine’s net energy billing program, which provides generators with credit for renewable power they produce and send to the electric grid, and a 100-megawatt cap on hydropower plants. Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, cited the same issues.

Jimmy Carter raised climate change concerns 35 years before the Paris Accords

ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 6, 2025

When Jimmy Carter chose branding designs for his presidential campaign, he passed on the usual red, white and blue. He wanted green. Emphasizing how much he enjoyed nature and prioritized environmental policy, the color became ubiquitous. Nearly a half-century later, environmental advocates are remembering Carter, who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, as a president who elevated environmental stewardship, energy conservation and discussions about the global threat of rising carbon dioxide levels. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to abandon renewable energy investments, echoing how President Ronald Reagan dismantled the solar panels Carter installed on the White House roof. But politics aside, the scientific consensus has settled where Carter stood two generations earlier.

Dozens of fishermen have applied for a rare chance to catch Maine shrimp

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 6, 2025

Upward of 30 Maine fishermen have applied for just seven slots available in a short, experimental shrimp season due to start in February.The tasty, long-prized pink crustaceans have been off limits to local fishermen for a decade because of low population levels, which scientists attribute to climate change and warming waters in the Gulf of Maine. But in December, the Maine Department of Marine Resources, in cooperation with the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission Northern Shrimp Board, announced it was seeking fishermen interested in participating in a special winter sampling research program to try and gauge the species’ health and population.

Polar vortex brings chilly temps to Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 5, 2025

The eastern U.S. is on track for a frigid week as a polar vortex stretches south, bringing below-normal temperatures to Maine. Starting Monday, much of the eastern two-thirds of the country will see temperatures 12 to 25 degrees colder than usual for this time of year. In Portland, temperatures were only expected to be about 6 degrees below normal Sunday and Monday, said Jon Palmer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray. The interior parts of Maine will see the chilliest conditions, with lows in the single digits and below zero in some spots.

How climate change is shortening Maine’s ice season, and why it matters

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • January 5, 2025

Maine lakes are warming two times as fast as the air around us, according to the Maine Climate Council. Less ice coverage and warmer waters increase summer stratification, which deprives the bottom waters of a pond or lake of oxygen. Fish need oxygen; if there is not enough dissolved oxygen in the lake water, they die. Warmer waters promote algae and vegetation growth, including invasive species that plague the lakes. While most people value its skating, fishing and snowmobiling benefits, a seasonal ice cap also protects the water below from shoreline runoff — less ice means less protection from chemicals, salt and nutrients in the runoff and declines in water quality.

How Jimmy Carter’s White House solar panels ended up in Maine

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • January 5, 2025

The need for alternative sources of energy and a desire for energy independence prompted President Jimmy Carter to install the first solar panels on the roof of the White House in 1979. The panels were later removed by the Reagan administration in 1986 and placed in storage. In 1991, the array of 32 solar panels formerly atop the White House was brought to Unity College. Sixteen of the panels were used to heat water for more than a decade. The college, now known as Unity Environmental University, is still in possession of 28 of the panels while four others have found new homes. The university has held on to them because of their historic nature and because they’re a reminder of Carter’s work to advance renewable energy efforts.