These devices are hazardous waste, but there’s nowhere to safely throw them out in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 14, 2024

“Disposable e-cigarettes” may be a misnomer given that there is no easy way to get rid of them in Maine, where they create fire hazards at dumps and expose beaches and other public areas to hazardous chemicals. Many people don’t even realize that the disposable e-cigarettes, also known as vapes, are considered hazardous waste by federal and state officials, said Matt Wellington, associate director of the Maine Public Health Association. Both the nicotine and the lithium-ion batteries that heat the product’s liquid into a vapor for inhaling are classified as hazardous waste, so they’re not meant to be thrown away in household trash or recycling. But with no options for disposal, that is causing problems at trash plants and in the environment throughout Maine.

Thousands in Maine are still without power after Saturday’s strong winds

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 13, 2024

Maine’s major electric utilities made significant progress repairing downed power lines after strong winds swept through the state on Saturday. But by Sunday morning thousands remained without power. As of 8 a.m. Sunday, Versant Power reported 1,552 customer without power, down from 19,861 early Saturday afternoon. Central Maine Power reported 16,853 outages at 8 a.m. Sunday, down from 67,290 early Saturday afternoon.

Climate change delays, disrupts Maine’s fall foliage season

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 13, 2024

Warming temperatures are pushing back peak conditions by more than a week since the 1950s. But several factors shape the timing and brilliance of autumnal color. While warmer temperatures may delay peak foliage, other aspects of climate change – wild precipitation patterns pinballing between drought and deluge, high winds from extreme weather, and more tree blight and pests – could dull, discolor or drop the autumn leaves before they reach peak color.

Lewiston-Auburn Community Forest Board: Volunteers advocate for trees in the cities

SUN JOURNAL • October 13, 2024

Nine volunteers behind the Lewiston-Auburn Community Forest Board are tasked with taking care of trees, young and old, in the Twin Cities. The board keeps an eye on the publicly owned trees just about anywhere in Lewiston and Auburn — parks, public green spaces, schools and sidewalks. In Maine, rules about who gets the last word about trees in public spaces are unusual. “The landowner or the homeowner owns the tree in the right of way, but the city controls it,” board Chairperson David Griswold said.

Opinion: When it comes to climate change, the future is now

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 13, 2024

This is climate change. For those of you who keep waiting for the “future” event, wait no longer. It is here, it is now. It will only get worse. Americans are now being killed in significant numbers by this phantasmagorical slayer from the future. The climate deniers have led Americans down the homicidal path of continued fossil fuel use with the resultant increase of carbon dioxide sequestration in our atmosphere. Self-avowed deniers such as Donald Trump, JD Vance, Mike Johnson, Ron DeSantis and innumerable others of their ilk continue their rhetorical canard. Their self-interested and single-minded energy policy has in no small measure led to this tragedy and countless others around the globe. ~ Ken Burke, MD, New Portland

Browntail moth numbers show decline in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 13, 2024

Browntail moths, whose invasive caterpillars have tiny rash-causing hairs that strike fear into Maine summers, did not have a good year here. The state found the caterpillars seemed to have had a more “sporadic population” across the state this year than in the past, a Maine Forest Service newsletter said on Thursday. They were recorded in more than 46,000 acres of the state in 2023, and harm forests as well as humans. Their more scattered populations this year are likely because of pathogens that attack the caterpillars, the state said.

What to know about hiking Maine’s tallest volcanic mountain

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 12, 2024

Standing on the summit, surrounded by jagged hunks of rock, I looked out over a seemingly endless forest of crimson, gold and burnt orange foliage. Beside me, a weathered wooden sign read, “The Traveler — 3,541 feet, Maine’s tallest volcanic mountain.” Fall had arrived in Baxter State Park, and I was celebrating with a 10-plus-mile hike of the Traveler Range. Visiting multiple peaks, it is one of the most challenging day hikes in Maine. It’s also particularly interesting, geologically.

About 30,000 in the dark after strong winds knock out power

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 12, 2024

Winds of up to 45 miles per hour knocked out electricity to more than 71,200 Central Maine Power customers across the state Saturday morning, but utility crews had restored service to almost 45% by early Saturday evening.

Letter: Federal contract is great news for Maine’s grid resiliency

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 12, 2024

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Avangrid for a  $425 million capacity contract for its Aroostook Renewable Project, a proposed clean energy transmission line to connect a substation in Haynesville to the Independent System Operator-New England (ISO-NE) power grid in Pittsfield with a 111-mile transmission line with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts. As a former member of the Maine House of Representatives’ Environment and Natural Resources Committee, I appreciate this investment and its support of the transition to clean energy. This award is great news for Maine’s grid reliability and resiliency, and the development of this transmission line will address ongoing energy constraints in northern Maine. ~ Scott Strom, Waterville

New bill would pay farmers to put rentals on their land

MAINE MONITOR • October 12, 2024

Some of Maine’s bucolic landscape might soon be ceded to help meet the state’s desperate demand for housing. A new bi-partisan bill introduced in September by U.S. Senators Angus King (I-ME) would pour an additional $200 million into an existing federal program to incentivize rural property owners to build rental housing on their land. A study commissioned by Gov. Mills and MaineHousing found that Maine will need upwards of an additional 84,000 new housing units by 2030. Maine’s already sparse farmland is under significant threat. According to American Farmland Trust, from 2001 to 2016, 17,000 acres of Maine’s agricultural land were developed or compromised, converted to residential or commercial use. The converted land could have generated $10 million in annual revenues had it stayed as farmland.

Letter: Bangor is a good place to live, but a bad place to walk

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 12, 2024

Bangor is a good place to live, having beautiful nature and the greatest people in the country. However, it is no longer a good place to live without a car. As a high schooler in Bangor without a car or driver’s license and who walks to school, I inevitably noticed the severe inconvenience due to the non-pedestrian friendly environment of our town. Bangor is not a town where pedestrians can feel safe to walk around. ~ Dylan Cho, Bangor

How much money has been spent subsidizing heat pumps in Maine?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 12, 2024

Oil is still the dominant source of home heating in Maine, but it’s being chased by electric heat pumps in a race prodded by Gov. Janet Mills and financed by federal taxpayers, state ratepayers and other funding sources. The governor has made electric heat pump installation a centerpiece of her administration’s energy and climate policy, bringing national attention to Maine. It’s come at a price: More than $135 million has been spent over the last decade to subsidize installation of electric heat pumps in Maine, and at least $125 million more is on the way.

1,600 tons of trash has been removed from Orrington plant

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 11, 2024

After nearly 10 days, Orrington firefighters have cleared the scene of a once-burning trash incinerator. Crews were gone as of Friday afternoon, after the fire was fully extinguished that morning. The plant, formerly known as Penobscot Energy Recovery Co., is now back in the hands of employees who are working to remove the trash. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has approved a corrective action plan for remediation efforts. The facility stopped processing trash in May 2023. It will restart operations in 2025.

Resigning airport official: I am ‘distracting’ from toxic foam clean-up efforts

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 11, 2024

The embattled director of the regional airport where a faulty, poorly maintained sprinkler system caused one of the nation’s biggest toxic foam spills says she is resigning because she had become a distraction from the oversight board’s cleanup efforts. “After much reflection, I’ve come to the difficult decision that my first duty is to ensure this good work goes on, unimpeded by outside politics and the political agendas of others,” Kristine Logan, executive director of Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, said Friday night. “For that reason, I’ve decided to remove myself as a focal point.”

Jay partnering with Auburn agency to submit grant to develop master recreational plan

SUN JOURNAL • October 11, 2024

Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls are partnering with and support of AVCOG on a grant application to the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection Agency’s Recreation Economy for Rural Communities planning assistance program, that would “focus on recreational planning as an economic driver for our communities.” AVCOG, or the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, is considered a regional planning agency and is providing the technical expertise for the grant application and will oversee it, if approved.

Director of Brunswick airport authority resigns in wake of toxic foam spill

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 11, 2024

About a month after state and municipal officials began calling for her resignation, the embattled director of the Brunswick Executive Airport — the site of one of the nation’s biggest toxic firefighting foam spills — is stepping down as the airport authority struggles to pay for a costly cleanup and regain the public trust. The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority did not announce the resignation of Kristine Logan, its executive director since January 2022, until late Thursday, a few hours after the authority board held its annual meeting. But the announcement letter was written before the meeting had even begun.

Maine delegation concludes offshore wind mission in Denmark, Norway

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 11, 2024

Gov. Janet Mills and a handful of state officials are headed back to Maine after a trip to Scandinavia to discuss the growth of offshore wind with government and industry officials. Following two days in Norway, Mills and a team of state officials traveled to Denmark on Wednesday, meeting with the Danish Parliament’s Climate, Energy and Utilities Committee to discuss technical details relating to offshore wind production and Denmark’s energy goals. The U.S. Department of the Interior plans to auction off wind leases for eight sites in the Gulf of Maine on October 29.

Brunswick lawmakers say resignation of airport leader ‘not a time to celebrate’

MAINE MONITOR • October 11, 2024

The resignation of the leader of the agency that oversees Brunswick Executive Airport, which saw one of the nation’s biggest spills of forever chemical-laden firefighting foam in August, does not cancel out the need for major structural reform, said Brunswick state legislators Rep. Dan Ankeles and Sen. Mattie Daughtry.  The resignation comes after local lawmakers called for a change in leadership after the fire suppression system at the airport accidentally discharged more than 1,000 gallons of the toxic foam on Aug. 19. “This is not a time to celebrate,” Ankeles said. Both Ankeles and Daughtry have already begun the initial steps to introduce legislative reforms. Ankeles’ bills will specifically target removing and better regulating the firefighting foam, while Daughtry’s proposals will focus on the governance of Brunswick Landing.

Conservation group offers to buy Kennebec River dams, Maine lawmaker says

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 11, 2024

An environmental group has reportedly offered to buy four Kennebec River dams long targeted for removal, marking a major step in resolving a long political and economic dispute between conservationists and the owner of the dams. The Nature Conservancy made an offer for four Kennebec River dams owned by an offshoot of the multinational Brookfield Corp., state Sen. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock, said. Before the deal is final, he said the sides need to tackle the water needs of the Sappi North America paper mill in Skowhegan, which relies on the Shawmut Dam between Fairfield and Benton.

Midcoast kelp forests in flux

TIMES RECORD • October 10, 2024

Kelp forests provide key habitat for ocean life and help clean water to create a thriving marine ecosystem. But these underwater forests are in flux due to changes in modern fisheries and, a new study published in the journal “Ecology” revealed, rapid ocean warming. Douglas Rasher, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, steered his team in documenting the first comprehensive census of Maine’s kelp forests in nearly two decades. Their work highlights the significant impact of climate change on ecological relationships in Gulf of Maine waters, showing the widespread collapse of kelp forests along the southern coast compared to their resilience in cooler, northern reaches.