New state law adds ‘insult to injury’ for Maine solar, clean energy

MAINE MONITOR • July 25, 2025

Maine’s solar incentive program hast been successful in spurring the development of small-scale solar projects. Since it was established in 2019, the Net Energy Billing program has helped bring hundreds of arrays and more than 1 gigawatt of solar power onto the grid — far exceeding the program’s 750 megawatt goal. But critics argue that NEB has become a raw deal for Maine ratepayers who have subsidized solar development to the tune of more than $200 million annually. Enter L.D. 1777, a bill that the Maine Legislature passed with bipartisan support last month and that Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed into law on June 27. The administration and proponents of the measure say overhauling the NEB program is necessary to better protect ratepayers amid rising energy prices. Eliza Donoghue, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association, called the law “penny wise and pound foolish. We have set ourselves up to not enjoy the incredible stabilizing effect that renewable energy has on energy costs.“

College of the Atlantic students help rescue 2 fishermen

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 24, 2025

Students from the College of the Atlantic are credited with helping to save two fishermen whose fishing vessel caught fire this morning in the vicinity of Mount Desert Rock. “At approximately 9:15 a.m., Station Southwest Harbor received a mayday call on Channel 16 reporting a fishing vessel on fire with two persons on board,” the Coast Guard said. “The duty SAR (search and rescue) crew swiftly responded on board the motor lifeboat 47311. While en route, the two fishermen had abandoned their boat and were recovered by members of the College of the Atlantic who were conducting research on Mount Desert Rock,” the Coast Guard reported.

Maine’s rising humidity signals shifting climate: ‘We’re living in a wetter world’

If you’re thinking Maine summers, known for their warm days and cool nights, aren’t like they used to be, you’re right. They’re not just getting hotter — they’re also getting stickier. The dew point, a measure of how much moisture is in the air, has been gradually rising across the state. As it climbs, our hot days feel even hotter and those conditions intensify risks of heat-related illnesses like heat exhaustion and heatstroke. The past few years have seen some of the highest average summer dew points on record in Maine, according to Weather Underground data. Measured in degrees Fahrenheit, dew point represents the temperature at which the air becomes fully saturated with moisture. High temperatures paired with dew points above 65 degrees can feel particularly oppressive.

Leaping sturgeon provide a show for nature lovers on Maine rivers

PHYS.org • July 24, 2025

The Kennebec River in Maine's capital city of Augusta is known for its population of Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon. The fish sometimes leap completely from the water, as at least one did on Wednesday. The shortnose population on the river nearly doubled from about 5,100 in the late 1970s to more than 9,400 around 2000, and it has likely grown since, state biologists have said. The ancient fish have also shown signs of recovering elsewhere in Maine, such as the Saco River further south. Scientists have proposed a number of reasons why sturgeon jump out of the water, including regulating their swim bladder, communicating with other sturgeon, shedding parasites and avoiding predators. The fish thrill nature lovers who are fortunate to catch their sudden leaps along Maine rivers. Catching a glimpse of them is often a matter of luck.

Bill to Fund Key Interior and Environmental Programs in Maine Clears Appropriations Committee

NEWS • July 24, 2025

U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, announced that she secured significant funding and provisions for Maine in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The bill, which was officially approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee today, now awaits consideration by the full Senate and House. “This legislation would provide important investments in Maine’s public lands, national parks, and tribal programs. It would promote healthy and resilient communities by supporting critical infrastructure that would help to provide clean drinking water and mitigate increasing flood risks,” said Senator Collins.

Maine’s land trusts are taking an especially active role in shaping the state’s future

NEWS CENTER MAINE • July 24, 2025

It may seem as though Maine has a substantial amount of public land, but that impression is misleading. An article by Charlie Pike in the August issue of “Down East” points out that “of all the New England states, Maine contains the lowest percentage of public land relative to its entire area, just 6.9 percent…Rhode Island, at 11.6 percent, is the next lowest.” Pike takes a thoughtful look at how land trusts in Maine have taken a vigorous role in preserving undeveloped property for future generations. Deputy editor Sarah Stebbins joined us on 207 to discuss that article as well as a little-known side of the great environmental writer and advocate Rachel Carson.

Wardens offering $6K reward for info on illegal release of bass in Maine lake

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 24, 2025

There is a $6,000 reward for information on how largemouth bass were introduced into West Musquash Lake in Washington County. Working with the Maine Warden Service, Maine Operation Game Thief and the Grand Lake Stream Guides Association are offering $5,000 and $1,000 rewards, respectively, to anyone who has information on the illegal stocking. West Musquash Lake is the only body of water in the Down East region that has wild brook trout, lake trout and a landlocked salmon fishery and is not stocked by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The lake is also one of the last bodies of water in Maine that has a population of round whitefish. Largemouth bass are likely to outcompete these naturally-occurring populations for crucial resources.

PopUpCycler Turns Plastic Trash into Art During Botanical Gardens Visit

LINCOLN COUNTY NEWS • July 24, 2025

Youth of all ages turned trash into art at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay on July 18-20. Rockland sculptor Kim Bernard led an educational art program with the PopUpCycler, a traveling plastic recycling machine, in the Bibby and Harold Alfond Children’s Garden. The PopUpCycler melts shredded No. 2 plastic into sticky modeling clay that can be shaped into anything an artist can dream up, including written words, abstract shapes, and functional items like flatware and chairs.

A new state law will boost Aroostook County potato processors

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 24, 2025

Two Aroostook County potato processors will benefit from a new state law that is meant to help foster expansion and job creation. The law, An Act to Promote Food Processing and Manufacturing Facility Expansion and Create Jobs, will provide tax credits to Aroostook potato processors starting this fall. The financial incentives will help cover a recent expansion at Penobscot McCrum, which added a new production line and 90 workers, and support the launch of the Taste of Maine Potato Chip Co. plant in Limestone, which will employ up to 100 people.

Maine electricians sit idle as green energy projects halt amid federal incentive cuts

NEWS CENTER MAINE • July 23, 2025

Maine has been surging toward its clean energy goals, reaching 50 percent clean energy by 2024, according to the governor’s office. However, federal cuts to sustainable energy incentives have stopped many solar projects in the state. Scott Cuddy, director of membership development at Local Chapter 1253 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union, says there is a lot less work than expected. Cuddy says union workers lost two large jobs that would have employed 40 to 50 workers each. He says that contractors only bid for projects they know their workforce can handle.

Golden, lobstermen call on Congress to extend right whale regulatory moratorium until 2035

MAINE PUBLIC • July 23, 2025

A coalition of Maine lobster fishing groups, along with Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, are calling on Congress to extend a right whale regulatory moratorium for another ten years. The moratorium, championed by Maine's entire congressional delegation and slipped into a last-minute budget bill during the final days of 2022, prohibited the federal government from implementing new restrictions on the lobster fishery that are intended to protect North Atlantic right whales. The regulatory pause is set to lift at the end of 2028. But Golden, who represents Maine's second congressional district, said Tuesday he believes the moratorium should be extended until 2035.

Maine OKs plans for state’s largest scallop farm

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2025

A Maine company growing scallops in Penobscot Bay that wanted to expand its operations  nearly tenfold got a slightly reduced version of those plans approved by the state on Tuesday, more than three years after starting the process. Vertical Bay is one of a handful of small Maine aquaculture companies growing scallops, a multi-year process using long vertical lines underneath the water. Its owner-operators, Belfast couple Andrew and Samantha Peters, applied for a 20-year, state-issued lease to increase their operation in the waters west of Hog Island from about four acres to roughly 41. The Department of Marine Resources approved the application with a roughly 5-acre reduction in size to accommodate traditional scallop dragging around part of the proposed lease area’s border.

With limited funding, Maine's green transit options clash over rail corridor use

MAINE PUBLIC • July 23, 2025

What if you could bike all the way from Portland to Augusta on a protected bike trail? That possibility came significantly closer to reality at the end of this legislative session, when Governor Janet Mills signed two bills into law. They begin the process that could create interim rail trails along unused train lines. The trails would span from Portland to Auburn and Brunswick to Gardner. There's even an extension Downeast in Calais. All in all, it could result in the creation of about 70 miles of connected walking and biking trails.

Maine’s congressional delegation introduces bill to help loggers affected by natural disasters

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 23, 2025

Maine’s four federal lawmakers are backing a bill that would create a disaster relief fund for the logging industry similar to those available to fishermen and farmers when they are impacted by a natural disaster. Logging businesses that face at least a 10% loss in revenue compared to the prior year because of natural disasters would be eligible for relief under the proposal. High winds, fire, flooding, insect infestation and drought are just some of the disasters that would apply. The Loggers Economic Assistance and Relief Act would create a new program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would be able to distribute up to $50 million dollars.

Maine Calling: Maine Light

MAINE PUBLIC • July 23, 2025

Maine is known for a certain quality of light that gives the scenery and environment a distinctive character. Artists have famously tried to capture “Maine light” in their work—think Edward Hopper and his images of a stark white lighthouse against a brilliant blue sky. We will find out the scientific phenomena that explain this special lighting—and we’ll talk with painters and photographers about how they try to capture it in their work. Panelists: Carl Little, art critic; author; poet; Judy Taylor, Maine-based painter and teacher; Alexs Diamond-Stanic, associate professor of physics, Bates College. VIP Callers: Cig Harvey, artist, photographer, writer, educator; John Paul Caponigro, photographer, visual artist working with digita media, instructor, writer, speaker; Phil Alexandre, Alexandre Gallery.

Column: Passenger trains are Maine’s missing link

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 23, 2025

Another summer with more big traffic jams on the way to Mount Desert Island, Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. The breathtaking air and scenery of MDI seems worth it. MaineDOT is clearly out of ideas, but there’s another one we haven’t properly considered: passenger trains with full-size buses. In the 19th century, visitors reached Maine’s coast by train or boat. Then came the great automobile romance and demise of passenger trains. If trains stopped in Bangor, it’s a 40-minute bus ride to Bar Harbor. Yet MaineDOT and the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority that runs the Downeaster insist new riders would be minimal and necessary investments would be pointless. Worldwide, train travel is booming. A new study determined 260,000 passengers would ride trains to Bangor yearly. ~ Douglas Rooks

327 Acres permanently protected as forever-wild in Montville and Freedom

MIDCOAST CONSERVANCY • July 22, 2025

327 acres of ecologically vital forestland and wetlands in the northern headwaters of the Sheepscot River have been permanently protected. This is a crucial river system for many species, including the endangered Atlantic salmon which can only be found in eight U.S. rivers. The addition of these parcels expands Midcoast Conservancy’s Northern Headwaters Preserve to over 1,750 contiguous acres. This conservation success is the result of powerful partnerships with Northeast Wilderness Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust, and generous support from Maine Community Foundation and The Butler Foundation. The two newly protected parcels, located in Montville and Freedom, contain significant headwater streams, wetlands, and mature forests that provide critical habitat for wildlife and contribute directly to the health and resilience of the Sheepscot River. These lands are especially important for the recovery of the endangered Atlantic salmon.

Maine’s endangered piping plover population sets record high

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 22, 2025

The population of endangered piping plovers in Maine has reached a record high this summer. Laura Minich Zitske, director of Maine Audubon’s piping plover and least tern project, said the 174 pairs of nesting birds documented this year reflects the state’s sustained effort to protect the species. “It takes a village to raise these guys,” she said. Multiple organizations have been involved in the protection of plover habitats since they were listed as an endangered species in 1986, including the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, countless municipalities, private landowners, and volunteers.