Gulf of Maine lobsters are experiencing a housing crisis

MAINE MONITOR • August 9, 2024

Lobster fishing has been a good business in the Gulf of Maine for a long time. Between 1984 and 2014, the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine jumped an estimated 515 percent, while simultaneously declining by 78 percent in southern New England as the water warmed in both regions. The result? A lobster housing crisis. Win Watson, a lobster scientist at the University of New Hampshire, said, “What you’re seeing is actually a direct result of climate change. Because there’s such an abundance of lobsters, the good rocky crevice habitat has been taken by the lobsters that got there first, and now you’ve got these other lobsters that have to sort of dig a temporary, low-rent condo out in the sand.”

Opinion: Offshore wind best way to combat destructive climate change

CENTRAL MAINE • August 9, 2024

Maine’s emerging offshore wind industry represents a crucial economic and environmental opportunity. Our coast’s high wind speeds and deep-water access make Maine an ideal candidate for a major offshore wind investment. In fact, the federal grant that will help pay for construction of an offshore wind port totals nearly half a billion dollars- the largest federal investment in our state ever! Offshore wind is the best way for Maine to combat destructive climate change while simultaneously promoting economic growth and Maine jobs. ~ Beth Trehu, Rome

Portland and other Maine communities get $25 million in storm recovery grants

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 9, 2024

The Mills administration on Friday awarded $25.2 million in storm recovery grants to 39 towns and cities in Maine, including funding for a new storm drain in Portland’s Old Port that’s designed to reduce waterfront flooding and sewage discharges into the harbor. The grants come from a $60 million fund created this year to improve the state’s infrastructure to make it more resilient to storms like the ones that devastated the coast and interior communities last winter.

Opinion: With PFAS, Maine can’t overcome the law of unintended consequences

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 9, 2024

Health concerns around PFAS led the Maine Legislature to restrict the substance starting in 2025. However, refrigerants in common use constitute “forever chemicals” necessary to the operation of heat pumps. So decreasing the reliance on wood or fossil fuels for home heating, in favor of heat pumps, has led to a broader distribution of PFAS-like chemicals. This is the law of unintended consequences. Solving one problem — fossil fuel use — has created another, with the wider distribution of “forever chemicals.” Are we better off using fewer fossil fuels and expanding the deployment of heat pumps notwithstanding the PFAS-esque proliferation? Or did we ignore the trade off of one problem for another? No easy answer. ~ Michael Cianchette

Climate groups aren’t going to stop talking about Project 2025

BLOOMBERG • August 9, 2024

Project 2025 proposes deep changes to the federal government that include severely cutting back the Environmental Protection Agency, replacing some career civil servants with political appointees, selling off public lands and breaking up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both Democrats and independents overwhelmingly expressed a negative view of the document in a poll. One of the reasons that liberal activists are mining the plan is that it concretely ties Trump to an extreme agenda, said Craig Segall, vice president of climate change advocacy group Evergreen Action.

Regulators move to delay increase in minimum lobster size

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 9, 2024

Federal regulators hope to give lobstermen an additional six months to prepare for a new rule that would slightly increase the minimum size of lobsters they are legally allowed to harvest. The one-sixteenth of an inch increase, which is designed to help boost a dwindling stock of lobsters in the Gulf of Maine, might seem minor but it could have big consequences. Lobster harvesters and dealers say that the fraction-of-an-inch change could eliminate the most lucrative segment of their catch and give Canadian competitors an unfair advantage. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said on Wednesday that it intends to delay a planned gauge increase until July 1, 2025. The rules were previously set to go into effect Jan. 1.

Opinion: Wisely and over time, yes, in my backyard

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 9, 2024

For the past 12 years, I’ve worked in Wells and lived in South Portland. There are smart ways to grow and … less smart ways to grow. As someone who works in climate adaptation and coastal science, I’d prefer to see development concentrated into vacant, servable areas than rampaging over Maine’s precious forests and fields. Redeveloping existing brownfields and vacant urban lots, as many Maine towns are doing, is smarter than clearcutting forests or paving farms. Should South Portland permit building units next to the sea, though? Yes, if the development is built suitably above sea level, as the Yard South plan proposes. Build? If we do it wisely and over time, I say: yes, in my backyard. ~ Nik Charov, president of Laudholm Trust and chairman of Wells Reserve at Laudholm, South Portland

Letter: The US pushes back against the EV at its peril

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 9, 2024

On average, a gas-powered passenger car will emit more than four metric tons of CO2 from its tailpipe each year. EVs don’t have tailpipes. Battery manufacturing and charging will create some emissions, but those will shrink as clean-energy use continues to rise. The global warming impact of greenhouse gas emissions from tailpipes is felt by all inhabitants of our planet. Chinese companies must smile when they hear, “drill, baby, drill.” ~ Fred Egan, York Harbor

Transformer makes slow move from Auburn to Lewiston

SUN JOURNAL • August 8, 2024

The first of four giant transformers destined for an electricity converter station off outer Main Street in Lewiston was slowly moved Thursday night from Rodman Road to its new location. The transformer and three more destined for the Main Street site will be used at the New England Clean Energy Connect converter station to convert direct current coming from Canada to alternating current and send it on its way to Massachusetts.

Sunken fishing vessel recovered from Harpswell waters after 7 months

TIMES RECORD • August 8, 2024

In a 20-hour operation, the Coast Guard raised the battered Jacob Pike from the bottom of the New Meadows River in Harpswell on Wednesday, more than seven months after the fishing vessel sank during a brutal winter storm. Maine Department of Environmental Protection was on scene throughout the process to monitor the intermittent dispersal of the oil sheen. “The plan was a comprehensive effort to ensure the protection of the local fishery and environment,” said Christopher Hopper, DEP Division of Response Services director, noting there were no reports of impact on local oyster beds or marine wildlife.

Sea glass fanatics scour Maine beaches and craft with treasures they find

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 8, 2024

Maine’s coastline is ideal for the weathering and collection of sea glass, said Richard LaMotte, who has written books on the subject. As shards of glass zigzag down the rocky shores and in and out of rugged coves, the turbulent waves create an “abrasive environment” that produces that sought-after frosted texture, he said. Finding sea glass has become a national hobby in the past two decades, LaMotte said.

Maine home of Frances Perkins, first female Cabinet member, seeks national monument designation

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 8, 2024

The Newcastle home of Frances Perkins – a chief architect of Social Security and other programs that helped transform the country during the Great Depression – soon could become Maine’s second national monument. The nonprofit Frances Perkins Center is asking President Biden to declare Perkins’ longtime family home on River Road in Newcastle a national monument, to be run by the National Park Service. It would become Maine’s second national monument, along with Katahdin Woods and Waters, which received the designation in 2016.

August heat wave stresses New England electric grid

MAINE PUBLIC • August 7, 2024

New England’s electric grid operator issued a rare energy emergency last week when power generation unexpectedly dropped off during a heat wave. ISO New England said it had to call in reserve power resources for a few hours on August 1 to meet surging electricity demand as the region sweltered in temperatures over 90 degrees. The grid operator said that increased energy use in the early evening surpassed morning forecasts. And there were unplanned power plant outages including the loss of a 350 megawatt resource. That created a capacity deficiency that prompted a power caution alert signaling the grid was under stress and tapping reserve power, said ISO New England spokesperson Matt Kakley.

Death toll for birds hitting buildings may be over 1 billion a year in US – report

THE GUARDIAN • August 7, 2023

Less than half of stunned or injured birds survive a collision with a window, research has found, pushing up estimates that more than 1 billion birds may die each year from flying into buildings in the US. In a new study published on Wednesday in Plos One, researchers examined how many birds recovered in rehabilitative care after a building collision. Older estimates had assumed that most stunned birds would recover, but researchers found about 60% died, meaning the number killed by building strikes may be far higher than previously thought.

In the classic sci-fi flick “Silent Running” all forests on Earth have become extinct

MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • August 7, 2024

Silent Running (1972) is first time director Douglas Trumbull’s environmental themed science fiction classic starring Bruce Dern and Dewey, Huey and Louie, his three drone helpers. Set in the not to distant future, all forests on Earth have become extinct and the only surviving species are on eight space craft in Saturn’s orbit in specially designed enormous greenhouse-like geodesic domes. Freeman Lowell (Dern) is the botanist aboard ‘Valley Forge’. When the ships are ordered to destroy the domes and return to Earth, he takes things into his own hands.

Column: Phases of climate change denial

CENTRAL MAINE • August 7, 2024

It is well-known that climates are changing worldwide; and that human activities are primarily responsible for it. Nonetheless, there is still a sizable number of people who deny that any such thing as human-induced environmental trouble even exists. Planet-wide pollution and habitat destruction have led directly to environmental disasters, climate change and mass extinction of species. There is no doubt about this, according to the climate scientists. But the denial — which is the denial of reality itself — has been persistent and discouraging. Climate change denial has to be a finalist for a lifetime-achievement Darwin Award. ~ Dana Wilde

Educational Hike at Quabbin Reservoir, August 24

MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • August 7, 2024

If you live in Massachusetts or will be visiting nearby, RESTORE, the Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter, and Save Massachusetts Forests are holding an educational walk through an undisturbed forest and a recent logging site on the Quabbin Watershed public lands. August 24, 2024, 10 am - 3:30 pm. Learn about the Quabbin Reservoir, its history, fauna, and climate action as well as the campaign to end logging on the state lands of the Quabbin, Ware, and Wachusett watersheds.

Hotel development in Portland booming as city seeks to amp up winter tourism

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 7, 2024

An increase in leisure and business travel to Portland over the last decade has prompted a hotel building boom that promises to bring hundreds of hotel rooms to the region. Can the city absorb that many rooms? Industry experts say yes. About 1,250 new hotel rooms have come online in the last 10 years. Portland has at least 750 hotel rooms in various stages of the planning process, and there are more than 400 in the works in the surrounding area. About 15 million people came to the state in 2023. They spent about $9.1 billion, up from $8.6 billion the year before – and stayed for longer, according to the state Office of Tourism.

Shellfish harvesting ban in part of Casco Bay expected to end later this week

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 6, 2024

A temporary ban on harvesting oysters, clams and other bivalve shellfish that went into effect Sunday is expected to last until Wednesday or Thursday, according to a scientist at the Department of Marine Resources. More than 2 inches of rain fell Sunday morning, causing runoff containing bacteria from fecal matter to enter Casco Bay, triggering the shellfish harvesting closure stretching from Freeport to Harpswell. It is the eighth rain-caused closure of 2024.

Downeaster reports record-setting ridership, revenue for 2024 fiscal year

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 6, 2024

The Amtrak Downeaster reported its highest ever ridership and revenue during the 2024 fiscal year, carrying nearly 600,000 riders between July 2023 and June 2024. The line broke ridership records in 10 out of 12 months. Ticket revenue over the fiscal year topped $13 million – $2.63 million more than the previous record, set in 2023.