Maine joins regional efforts to secure $1 billion for clean energy projects

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 17, 2024

State energy agencies in the six New England states are partnering to compete for as much as $1 billion from Washington to upgrade electricity transmission, including generating up to 4,800 megawatts with offshore wind and battery storage in Connecticut and northern Maine. Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont jointly submitted two applications for federal funding in a project called Power Up New England intended to improve the reliability and resilience of the region’s grid, the states said Wednesday. The states also are working with New York state in a second round of funding that features a transmission upgrade for a 345-kilovolt New York-New England transmission line to transfer up to 1,000 megawatts between the two regions.

Maine Legislature passes bill seeking to avoid labor disruptions on clean energy projects

MAINE MORNING STAR • April 17, 2024

A bill meant to ensure clean energy projects on state land aren’t disrupted by labor disputes passed the Legislature this week and will go to Gov. Janet Mills for consideration. LD 373 requires an entity leasing state land for a clean energy development project to mandate that the lessee enter an “employer and employee harmony agreement.” In February, bill sponsor Sen. Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot) said such harmony agreements represent a compromise between workers and employers. The agreements require companies awarded bids for the types of projects specified by the bill to agree not to bust a union or lock out workers. In exchange, workers give up their right to strike. The overall goal of the bill is to ensure that public money isn’t used to fight unionization while also making sure that essential climate projects are completed without labor fights slowing things down. 

Centuries-old Standish farm protected from development

FORECASTER • April 17, 2024

A Standish farm that has been operating since at least 1800 will be preserved indefinitely as a Maine Farmland Trust Forever Farm. The 91-acre Sunset Farm is stewarded by Margaret Marean, the fourth generations of Mareans to operate it. Her nephew Jeff Davis and his wife Rosana live in the old farmhouse and she resides in a ranch house down the road.

Obituary: Fern Ederie Stearns

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 17, 2024

Legendary canoeist, writer, and teacher Fern Crossland Stearns, 90, died on April 14, 2024. Fern married William F. Stearns of Rumford in 1959. Bill and Fern honeymooned with a canoe camping trip on the Machias River, beginning what became a lifetime of leadership in Maine's paddling and river advocacy communities. She fought for free-flowing and wild rivers and championed the sports of wilderness canoeing and whitewater canoe racing. Fern and Bill raced in the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race for decades. She was recognized as a Legend of Paddling by the organizers of that race. Fern and Bill were principal founders of Penobscot Paddle & Chowder Society. Fern and Bill were instrumental in expanding whitewater racing, frequently winning the national crown in their class. The Maine Canoe and Kayak Racing Organization honored her with an award for drawing people into canoeing. In 1974, they guided a team of canoeists from federal and state agencies in a study of the Penobscot River's eligibility for designation as a Wild and Scenic River.

New Forest Service report reveals agency wants to max out logging

WILD EARTH GUARDIANS • April 17, 2024

The United States Forest Service manages 193 million acres of national forests. These forests provide habitat to thousands of wildlife species (including threatened and endangered species), and offer recreational and mental wellness benefits to millions of Americans. It’s hard to overstate just how important our national forests are to our lives. Yet a recent Forest Service report to Congress provides a blueprint of how the agency could increase logging to meet arbitrary, non-science based timber production goals. The mechanisms proposed by the Forest Service to meet these “Timber Targets” include cutting public involvement in decision-making and oversight of agency action, to make it easier to cut more trees, including from forests that are key to combating climate change. 

New study calculates climate change’s economic bite will hit about $38 trillion a year by 2049

ASSOCIATED PRESS • April 17, 2024

Climate change will reduce future global income by about 19% in the next 25 years compared to a fictional world that’s not warming, with the poorest areas and those least responsible for heating the atmosphere taking the biggest monetary hit, a new study said. Climate change’s economic bite in how much people make is already locked in at about $38 trillion a year by 2049, according to Wednesday’s study in the journal Nature.

Belfast decision puts future of controversial salmon farm in jeopardy

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 17, 2024

Belfast City councilors voted 4-1 on Wednesday night to reverse their decision to seize a piece of land needed to build a controversial land-based salmon farm that would be one of the largest in the world. Nordic Aquafarms, the Norwegian developer behind the $500 million project, said it needs that land — a parcel of mud flats — to install pipes to pump water in and out of Penobscot Bay. The company thought it owned that property until a Waldo County Superior Court ruling in February 2023 determined it actually belonged to a neighboring couple that opposes the fish farm. Without a guarantee to the land, it is unclear whether Nordic Aquafarms can move forward

New potato chip plant in Aroostook on track for July construction start

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 17, 2024

The people behind one of Loring Commerce Center’s major new developments plan to begin construction by late July 2024. Taste of Maine Potato Chip Co., based in Presque Isle, held a kickoff event on the Loring campus Wednesday to celebrate its future $55 million potato chip processing plant. The company is the vision of Falcon Transportation owner Bruce Sargent and colleagues, who hope to be part of revitalizing the former Loring Air Force Base. The base closed almost 30 years ago, in September 1994.

This free Bangor event can help you protect your catalytic converter from thieves

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 17, 2024

You can reduce the risk of losing your car’s catalytic converter to theft for free next week. Catalytic converters contain valuable precious metals and are fairly simple to remove from cars, making them a popular target for thieves in recent years. Engraving the converter with identifying vehicle information, however, could deter thieves and help you recover the converter if it is stolen. Converter etching will be available for free at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor from 8 a.m. to noon next Tuesday.

GrowSmart Maine opposes Gorham Connector project citing environmental harm

MAINE PUBLIC • April 17, 2024

GrowSmart Maine is restating its opposition to the Gorham Connector project. On Tuesday, the nonprofit said that the Maine Turnpike Authority project will irrevocably harm the environment for unclear benefits. GrowSmart CEO Nancy Smith said expanding the highway is only a temporary fix and doesn't address the underlying demand for single-passenger transit.

Wildlife in the Eastern Trail gap: UNE students to present findings of six-year study

SOUTH PORTLAND-CAPE ELIZABETH SENTRY • April 17, 2024

Findings of a six-year study of the wildlife living and feeding in the 1.6-mile gap of the Eastern Trail between Wainwright Recreation Complex in South Portland and Nonesuch River in Scarborough will be presented next week. On Tuesday, students in University of New England Professor Noah Perlut’s Terrestrial Wildlife class will discuss their GapTracks Project at an event organized by the Scarborough Land Trust. The project uncovered trends in the animal population, ratios of predators to prey and even some lighter moments, like a fox climbing a tree and a fisher taking an unusual daytime walk.

Searsport officials try to avoid sides in wind port location debate

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 17, 2024

Environmental activists who oppose Maine’s effort to develop an offshore wind terminal on Sears Island are urging the town of Searsport to take their side and push for the project to be moved to nearby Mack Point. While town officials have welcomed the construction of the offshore wind staging site in Searsport, they say they’re neutral on the question of which of the two sites — Sears Island or Mack Point — is better.

Maine Trails Bond Approved by Legislature

NATURAL RESOURCES COUNCIL OF MAINE • April 16, 2024

The Maine Legislature today approved the Maine Trails Bond that would provide $30 million over four years to invest in the design, development, and maintenance of trails statewide. In a strong show of bipartisan support, the House voted 133-6, and the Senate voted 29-3, far surpassing the two-thirds majority votes required to pass bond measures. If signed by the Governor, it will appear on the November ballot for approval by Maine voters. This will be the first time that Maine voters will have an opportunity to vote for a trails bond. At a time when outdoor recreation activities, including on trails, represent a growing segment of Maine’s economy, the Maine Trails Bond has garnered broad, bipartisan support across the state. More than 520 organizations, businesses, and towns have endorsed the Trails Bond.

Column: Maine high court’s right to food decision protects legal hunting

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 16, 2024

In an effort to thwart a legal effort by a Readfield couple to use the Right to Food amendment to overturn Maine’s ban on Sunday hunting, the state of Maine argued that the new amendment did not grant constitutional protection to hunt in our state. Although the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled against the Readfield couple, and held that the Sunday hunting ban was not contrary to the amendment, the court held that the amendment DOES protect legal hunting. In other words, for purposes of the constitutional amendment, as voted by Maine residents in the 2021 referendum, the constitutional word “harvest” includes hunting. ~ V. Paul Reynolds

Texas firm claims it’s owed $2M for work on Maine solar farms

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 16, 2024

A Texas-based company is suing multiple Penobscot County businesses for a total of nearly $2 million, claiming they did not pay for construction work it did at various solar installations. Ox Services LLC has filed three lawsuits alleging multiple companies were unjustly enriched and violated their contracts by failing to pay for those services. The company provided labor for the installation of solar panels at three locations, attorney Greg Frame said. Ox Services wants a judge to order the companies to pay $1.98 million, plus interest and attorney fees,

The oceans are warming even faster than experts predicted—a change that’s 'truly extraordinary'

NEWS CENTER MAINE • April 16, 2024

When Dave Reidmiller of the Climate Center at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland heard the news recently that the ocean had broken temperature records every day for the past year, even he—an expert on the subject—was taken aback. "'Wow' was probably the first reaction," he said. "This was not great news. And secondly, we also kind of expected it. The science has been telling us now for a couple of decades that these trends are continuing." What has surprised even the experts, though, is how quickly and dramatically ocean temperatures are rising.

Waterville council votes to approve rezoning for Webb Road solar farm

MORNING SENTINEL • April 16, 2024

The City Council took a final vote Tuesday to rezone part of 99 Webb Road to allow for a solar farm to be built there. Property owner Leo St. Peter still needs approval from the Planning Board to build the solar farm.

Maine now has greater oversight of freight railroads, but public access to data is limited

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 16, 2024

A law signed by Gov. Janet Mills allows the public to access records about hazardous materials moving along Maine tracks, but only after a derailment or spill. A Portland Press Herald investigation published last year revealed widespread issues with freight rail operations in Maine, including poorly maintained lines, unreported accidents and secrecy around the hazardous materials transported through the state.

Brunswick aquaculture business hopes to expand

TIMES RECORD • April 16, 2024

A pending lease for Ferda Farms, a Brunswick-based oyster farming operation, through the Department of Marine Resources will help the business consolidate its farms and grow its small operation. After a lengthy, three-year process, the department held its first public hearing at Brunswick Town Hall for the application. The DMR said it will make a decision within a few months. The slow timeline of the application has not prevented the farm, which was founded in 2018, from working to grow on a social scale. “Community outreach — you can’t really do enough of it, really,” co-owner Chris Burtis said.

Down East fishways project gets nearly $8M from Congress

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 16, 2024

A multimillion dollar replacement of a failing fishway on a St. Croix River dam will begin next year to reopen 600 miles of sea-run fish habitat. Congress recently awarded $7.8 million for the new fish lift at Baileyville’s Woodland Dam. It is one of several projects on the river aiming to boost the state’s fishing industries by returning populations of fish once common there — particularly alewives.