Tuesday’s hot weather breaks temperature record in Augusta

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • October 3, 2023

Less than two weeks into autumn, summer-like conditions returned to Augusta on Tuesday, breaking the high temperature record for Oct. 3 set in 1983. By mid-afternoon, the National Weather Service in Gray, had recorded a temperature of 83 degrees in the capital city, which was 4 degrees higher than the previous high of 79 degrees. Ultimately, the temperature reached 85 degrees, tying the maximum temperature recorded for any day in October. That record was set on Oct. 1, 1954.

State regulators to hold additional hearing for proposed mine

MAINE PUBLIC • October 3, 2023

After a push from legislators, state agencies have added an additional public hearing on a proposed mining project in northern Penobscot County. The Land Use Planning Commission has scheduled the session for Oct. 23 in Bangor, a week after three days of hearings in Millinocket. In their petition to the LUPC, legislators said the mine would have a statewide impact, and that the Millinocket location is too remote for some Mainers to attend.

Jared Golden saw ‘no reason’ to defend Kevin McCarthy in leadership fight

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 3, 2023

U.S. Rep. Jared Golden voted alongside fellow Democrats Tuesday in favor of a hardline conservative’s motion to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, saying the Republican leader “doesn’t have the pulse” of Maine’s 2nd District. Golden cited McCarthy’s votes against a six-year regulatory freeze on right whale regulations affecting Maine fishermen among other issues.

Opinion: Mining in the Katahdin region could endanger Maine’s outdoor economy

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 3, 2023

As longtime owners of sporting camps in Maine, we know the deep connection that a clean and healthy environment has to the state’s economic success. Maine’s North Woods are the backbone of a booming outdoor recreation economy. We cannot afford to put this unique place at risk with a mine. We believe the Land Use Planning Commission must reject Wolfden Resource’s proposed rezoning change to allow the company to develop a metal mine near Pickett Mountain and Mount Chase. ~ Jen Brophy, Red River Camps in Deboullie Township and Igor Sikorsky, Bradford Camps on Munsungan Lake

The Reindeer at the End of the World: Apocalypse, Climate, and Soviet Dreams, Oct 3

MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • October 3, 2023

Told as a refutation of the idea that climate change is so apocalyptic all is hopeless, this talk by Bathsheba Demuth looks to the history of Indigenous Chukchi people amid the rise and fall of the Soviet Union in the Arctic to look for lessons in how societies survive massive transitions—and the role of local knowledge, interspecies relationships, and community in doing so. At Bowdoin College, Visual Arts Center, Kresge Auditorium, Brunswick, October 3, 7:30 pm.

Opinion: Look no further than Long Island for a case for public power

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 3, 2023

As the president of the Large Public Power Council and former CEO of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, I know firsthand the benefits that public power provides customers. In recent months, some have cited LIPA’s experience after buying an investor-owned utility as a scare tactic to say public power won’t work in Maine. Their information is misguided, outdated and not based on facts. The facts show the public power model which Pine Tree Power is seeking works – and puts customers first. ~ John Di Stasio, Large Public Power Council

Opinion: Pine Tree Power is the best choice for our state’s climate goals

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 3, 2023

Pine Tree Power would keep its revenue in Maine working for Maine people instead of sending profits to investors of CMP and Versant in foreign lands. Equally important would be Pine Tree’s responsiveness to the state’s Climate Action Plan goal for carbon neutrality by 2045. ~ Anthony Dater, Kennebunk

Letter: Pine Tree Power a chance for a clean break

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 3, 2023

Mainers are swimming in an ocean of ads warning how awful it would be if Pine Tree Power replaced Central Maine Power and Versant as electricity providers, so let’s see what we have under the present regime. In 2022, the two firms sucked $187 million out of the state. That money could have been far better spent inside our state to deal with the now obvious harm which climate change is doing. As if that weren’t enough, every time a storm breaks, public radio broadcasts news of power outages, which seem to have become routine. Do we really want more of the same? ~ John Raby, Scarborough

Lawmakers hear how other states are catching up to Maine on PFAS regulation

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 2, 2023

Maine will ban the in-state sale of most products that contain a group of potentially harmful chemicals known as PFAS by 2030, but that doesn’t mean state lawmakers won’t try to implement some limited PFAS product bans before its comprehensive ban goes into effect. A legislative committee learned Monday that other states have banned PFAS from products that are still allowed to be sold in Maine with the compounds.

Question 3: What you need to know about the Pine Tree Power referendum

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 2, 2023

Question 3 proposes creating a new publicly owned and controlled power company by taking over the assets of Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power, which together distribute 97% of Maine’s electricity. The new utility, called Pine Tree Power, is the focus of the most prominent of the eight ballot measures facing voters Nov. 7 and is at the center of a multimillion-dollar political fight played out at forums and ads on the internet and elsewhere. Supporters say the arrangement would ensure local control over the new utility, improve reliability, expand renewable energy, and allow borrowing money at lower interest rates to upgrade and expand the grid. Opponents say there would not be great savings, an elected board would be subject to political whims, litigation and politics would delay greater electrification, and directors could postpone or sideline improvements to the reliability and expansion of the grid.

Maine hunters bagged some huge moose in the first week of the hunt

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 2, 2023

Moose hunters registered a handful of bulls weighing more than 1,000 pounds in September, according to logs at two of Aroostook’s three major tagging stations that weigh the animals. Gateway Trading Post in Ashland registered a bull at 1,024 pounds, while Up North Outdoors in Fort Kent had at least one animal weigh in at more than 1,000 pounds. This year, the state issued 4,106 permits. Early figures show that a total of 775 moose were taken during the weeklong hunt, Sept. 25-30.

Opinion: Community support essential to preserve farmlands and wildlands

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 2, 2023

Two significant reports, “A Regional Approach to Food System Resilience” and “Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future,” produced by the New England Food System Planners Partnership and Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands, and Communities, respectively, provide important insights into the supply chains of the New England food system and the preservation of wildlands. Only by taking an integrated approach in partnership with rural and urban communities that simultaneously pursues a just and resilient food system while stewarding biodiversity through the conservation of wildlands, woodlands and more can we build a flourishing and democratic future. The good news is that we are not far off from realizing this approach. ~ Tom Kelly, UNH Sustainability Institute

Environmental groups demand emergency rules to protect rare whales from ship collisions

ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 2, 2023

A coalition of environmental groups is calling on the federal government to enact emergency rules to protect a vanishing species of whale from lethal collisions with large ships. The groups filed their petition with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in an effort to protect the North Atlantic right whale. The whale numbers less than 340 and has been in steep decline in recent years. The right whales were once abundant off the East Coast, but they were decimated during the commercial whaling era. They have been protected under the Endangered Species Act for several decades.

Montana is appealing a landmark climate change ruling that favored youth plaintiffs

ASSOCIATED PRESS • October 2, 2023

The office of Montana’s Republican attorney general is appealing a landmark climate change ruling that said state agencies aren’t doing enough to protect 16 young plaintiffs from harm caused by global warming. The state filed notice on Friday that it is going to appeal the August ruling by District Court Judge Kathy Seeley, who found the Montana Environmental Policy Act violates the plaintiffs’ state constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. The 1971 law requires state agencies to consider the potential environmental impacts of proposed projects and take public input before issuing permits.

Sea kayak trip provides unique celebration Maine’s lighthouses

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 2, 2023

The U.S. Coast Guard, the Maine Office of Tourism and the American Lighthouse Foundation sponsored Maine Open Lighthouse Day on Sept. 9. Twenty famous Maine lighthouses participated including Goat Island Light in Cape Porpoise Harbor near Kennebunkport. A friend proposed a Penobscot Paddle and Chowder Society sea kayak trip to the island. My wife and I enthusiastically signed on. Climbing the narrow dark circular tower stairs to the railed platform at the top of the lighthouse was like taking a journey back in time. The views of the surrounding area were nothing short of phenomenal. A gentle tailwind helped propel us back to the causeway landing. ~ Ron Chase

A fast-growing vine is one of the newest invasive species identified in Maine

MAINE PUBLIC • October 2, 2023

The discovery of an invasive vine in Maine has alarmed state officials who keep an eye out for non-native species. It's called the mile-a-minute vine, and despite the name, it doesn't grow 60 miles in one hour. But it can grow up to six inches in a day. It's just one of many features that have enabled it to become established in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England — and identified in Maine. But there are efforts to keep it at bay.

Cottontail rabbits released in Maine refuge as part of effort to bring them back

MAINE PUBLIC • October 2, 2023

The Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Kittery is the first refuge in Maine to host New England cottontails after dozens of the rabbits were released there this year. New England cottontails are a protected species in Maine and conservationists say there are only 320 left, but there is evidence the species is rebounding. In September, volunteers planted 700 native plants on Cutts Island in Kittery as part of the refuge's program to restore New England cottontail habitat. It's been a 10-year process. Refuge Wildlife Biologist Kate O'Brien says vanishing habitat caused the once prolific species to decline over decades, but with help the population of the threatened rabbits is growing again.

Amid climate concerns, bill would curb Poland Spring’s long-term water extraction deals

MAINE MORNING STAR • October 2, 2023

In rural areas of Maine, local activists have long been concerned about resource extraction by bottled water giant Poland Spring, expressing worries about the environmental impacts and arguing that communities should have more control over their own groundwater supply given the escalating climate crisis.  Now, water rights advocates are lining up behind a bill that would significantly limit the contract length that companies like Poland Spring are allowed to sign with municipal utilities to extract groundwater. 

Maine’s top court will hear arguments about Sunday hunting

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 2, 2023

The legal battle over Maine’s 140-year ban on Sunday hunting will go before the state’s highest court this week. Attorneys for the state of Maine and the family suing the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will make their cases before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday. At issue is whether a constitutional amendment enacted in 2021 granting a right to food means that Mainers should be able to hunt any day of the week.

Maine’s dueling utility referendums could create legal standoff

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 2, 2023

The conflicting referendums are Question 3, which would create a Pine Tree Power Co. that would buy out the infrastructure of Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power and put it under the control of an elected board, and the CMP-backed Question 1 which attempts to slow the creation of any new utility by subjecting billions in borrowing to yet another vote. Perhaps the only thing certain about the dueling questions is the uncertainty over what could happen if Maine voters pass both measures. If Question 3 passes, a ratepayer watchdog expects five to 10 years of legal wrangling over constitutionality and the price of utility assets.