Affordable housing group opposes Portland’s ‘Green New Deal’

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 5, 2020

The Maine Affordable Housing Coalition said Monday that it will oppose the “Green New Deal” referendum on the Portland ballot in next month’s election. The proposal, which would impose strict environmental standards on new housing projects that receive government aid, would be detrimental to the city’s affordable housing efforts, the group said. The referendum, listed on the city ballot as “Question C: An Act to Implement a Green New Deal for Portland,” would require that the roofs of new housing units be built either solar-ready or be greenery-covered “living roofs.”

Exxon’s plan for surging carbon emissions revealed in leaked documents

BLOOMBERG • October 5, 2020

Exxon Mobil has been planning to increase annual carbon-dioxide emissions by as much as the output of the entire nation of Greece, an analysis of internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg shows, setting one of the largest corporate emitters against international efforts to slow the pace of warming. The additional 21 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year that would result from ramping up production dwarfs Exxon’s projections for its own efforts to reduce pollution, such as deploying renewable energy and burying some carbon dioxide.

Maine gets $2 million to help advance offshore wind power

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 5, 2020

The Governor’s Energy Office is receiving more than $2.1 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to advance an economic roadmap for establishing Maine as an offshore wind power industry leader. State agencies and other stakeholders, including the University of Maine, will develop a comprehensive offshore wind roadmap aimed at creating jobs and growing talent in Maine with a focus on floating technology.

Conservation Success Or Pests? Seals Spark Passionate Debate

ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 5, 2020

The increasing number of seals off New England waters has set off a debate over whether there are just too many of these resilient mammals. A growing number of fishermen, beachgoers and local government officials are blaming the seals for spreading disease, eating too many fish and drawing sharks to the local waters. Scientists who study seal populations acknowledged their numbers have reached as many as 50,000 after being nearly wiped out by hunting. But they said there is little scientific evidence to support calls to reduce their numbers, noting that could actually do more harm than good to the marine ecosystem.

Tribe protests Old Town landfill waste in Penobscot River

ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 5, 2020

Members of the Penobscot Nation said an Old Town landfill is dumping waste into the Penobscot River. The Juniper Ridge landfill is responsible for 1.3 million gallons of leachate that goes into the river each month, according to Sunlight Media Collective, which represents the tribe. The river has provided fish and sanctuary for the Penobscot Nation who feel like that has been taken from them. The Maine Board of Environmental Protection is currently considering changes to Maine’s waste policy that would control the disposal of out-of-state waste.

Group pushes to close loophole in Maine’s ban on out-of-state waste

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 5, 2020

Maine nominally outlawed the dumping of trash generated in other states in 1989 by banning commercial landfills from operating. That allowed the state to manage the source of waste dumped at the landfills, but a loophole allows mountains of waste from elsewhere to still be disposed of in Maine. The loophole allows hundreds of thousands of tons of out-of-state waste to be disposed of in Maine, mostly at the Juniper Ridge landfill in Old Town, the only landfill owned by the state that’s still operating. It is run by Casella Waste under a management contract. The Natural Resources Council of Maine and others are pushing for changes in the rules to close the loophole.

Editorial: Climate change effects becoming harder to ignore

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 5, 2020

Climate change is still altering the landscape here, and unless more is done to stop it and mitigate its impact, climate change will continue to introduce new challenges to the way of life in Maine, while wreaking absolute havoc in other parts of the world. Poor leadership on climate change has wasted a lot of precious time. When we need to be reducing carbon emissions, President Trump has instead rolled back numerous environmental protections. Recently he said, against all scientific fact and consensus, that the climate would “start getting cooler” again. We cannot waste anymore time on denial. 

This midcoast town is preparing to spend $4M to hold back the rising river passing through it

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 5, 2020

With the help of a multi-million dollar federal grant, Damariscotta officials are hoping to protect the local downtown from its biggest natural asset: the scenic, tidal Damariscotta River. The problem is not unique to Damariscotta as rising sea levels caused by climate change are affecting towns all along the Maine coast, from York to Washington counties. Many of them are assessing how they might adapt to the changing conditions.

As expected, drought is taking toll on spud harvest in Maine

ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 4, 2020

The drought that has hurt farmers in Aroostook County is going to reduce yields for many potato farmers. Some farmers expect to eke out an average crop but many are reporting smaller yields because of the dry weather, said Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board. “Most say yields are down. In some cases it could be 30 percent but what the bottom line is for the whole crop is still an unknown at this point,” he said. A weaker-than-normal harvest could send ripples through the economy already hurt by the pandemic.

ReTreeUS gets grant for Lewiston tree-planting project

TURNER PUBLISHING • October 4, 2020

ReTreeUS has been awarded a 2020 TD Tree Days grant from TD Bank. TD Tree Days is a community-based program created in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, which expands urban forests and green spaces in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods. The grant will allow ReTreeUS staff and volunteers, including students and teachers from Lewiston High School, Next STEP High and staff and Food Corps members from St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, to plant 50 trees at Franklin Pasture Park in Lewiston on Oct. 8 and Oct. 16, steps from Lewiston High School, Next STEP High School, and Connors Elementary School.

Photos: Waterville Downtown Farmers’ Market offers food for body, soul

MORNING SENTINEL • October 4, 2020

The Downtown Waterville Farmers’ Market at Head of Falls has been providing food for the body and food for the soul. Since April, Waterville Creates! has been distributing art kits through its Art Kits for All program every other week at the market. About 1,200 kits have been given out so far, according to outreach coordinator Serena Sanborn.

Sales of rustic camps in northern Maine surge during pandemic

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 4, 2020

Sales of camps in northern Maine jumped by nearly 30 percent over the past year through Sept. 30, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. The uptick occurred mostly in July and August, because real estate sales across the board were down from April through June, according to Suzanne Guild, chief executive officer of the Maine Association of Realtors. A camp is often considered a primitive cabin on a lake – and many are in remote locations with no electricity. Whether a lake home with electricity is listed as a camp by the realtors’ association depends on how the seller categorizes it. However, several northern Maine realtors reported selling many primitive, off-the-grid cabins this year.

Commentary: COVID-19 is a dress rehearsal for climate change

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 4, 2020

We’re in the thick of two great wars right now, one just in front of us and the other, by far the larger, rumbling loudly in the distance. The COVID war we’re fighting today will, in the end, kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of people around the world. But over time it might seem a mere skirmish before the larger war with climate change, which has the potential to flood and burn the country, as we’re seeing today in the South and West, and to extinguish entire species, including our own. ~ Alan Caron, Freeport

Maine Voices: Republican Party can’t be saved

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 4, 2020

Three decades ago, I was proud to lead the Republican Party in Maine. That party no longer exists. What has replaced it deserves to be soundly rejected in this year’s election. The Republican leaders I was fortunate to know were honorable men and women who helped prevent the damming of the St. John River, fought to protect our coast from oil spills, ended log drives that clogged our rivers, removed unsightly billboards from the landscape and cleaned up our roadways with returnable bottles. I long for the principled Republican Party I once knew, but for that party to ever have a chance of re-emerging, the party of Trump and McConnell must be destroyed. The future of our democracy may well hang in the balance. ~ Ted O’Meara, Yarmouth, served as chair of the Maine Republican Party from 1990 to 1992

Letter: Maine Climate Council proposals will fuel new clean-energy jobs

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 4, 2020

With the proposals put forth by the Maine Climate Council turned into law, we can increase the energy efficiency of homes and businesses and expand these local renewable-energy projects even further, creating new, long-lasting clean-energy jobs for Maine workers. In this age of so much division, what an incredible win-win for everyone. ~ Cheryl Hoffman, North Berwick

Some of Maine’s farm fairs try to salvage season online

ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 3, 2020

Summer and fall in Maine are normally a time of pig races, demolitions derbies and piles of fried food at the state’s agriculture fairs. This year, the coronavirus pandemic interrupted that, canceling all 26 fairs. Some of the events have tried to salvage the season with virtual versions. The Common Ground Country Fair, which is the state’s annual celebration of organic farming and rural living, moved online in September. The fair usually includes in-person seminars about everything from how to wield a scythe to how to raise rare breeds of sheep. Moving the fair online was difficult, but it allowed it to happen at all.

Column: Big cats are showing themselves, so why are experts skeptical?

SUN JOURNAL • October 3, 2020

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife says,. “There are no known cougar populations in Maine at this time.” What is meant exactly by the term “no known cougar populations”? Is it meant to be absolute, or is it a qualified hedge meant to leave an opening? We must assume, based on these biologists’ grudging admission that “there may be dispersing cougars from bordering states or provinces just passing through,” that there is no cougar reproduction taking place in Maine. Of 30 personal sighting accounts, only one reported seeing a large cat and an apparent yearling cougar. The passing of time may help us resolve the inconsistencies surrounding this elusive wild cat. ~ V. Paul Reynolds

On this date in Maine history: Oct. 3

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 3, 2020

Oct. 3, 2014: A federal judge orders the bankruptcy case of Great Northern Paper Co. transferred from Delaware to Maine. A lawyer for the towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket, where GNP operated two mills, says at the hearing that the company owes the towns more than $3 million in back taxes. The company, managed by private-equity firm Cate Street Capital, closed its East Millinocket mill in January and laid off 200 workers. When the company filed for bankruptcy, it listed more than $50 million in liabilities and almost 1,000 creditors. The company’s Millinocket mill closed in 2008. Just two days before the federal judge’s GNP ruling. Verso Paper announced that it was closing its paper mill in Bucksport.

Maine Senate Race and the Environment

LIVING ON EARTH • October 2,2020

One of the key races in the 2020 elections is for the US senate in Maine, where the environment is consistently rated as a priority issue for voters. Incumbent Senator Susan Collins is known for having a strong environmental record among her Republican colleagues, but many environmental groups focused on the campaign for a more environmentally-friendly Democratic majority in the Senate have switched their support to Democratic challenger Sara Gideon. Host Steve Curwood is joined by Bangor Daily News Politics Editor Michael Shepherd to discuss this contest.