Don’t take away Maine’s right to clean water

NATURAL RESOURCES COUNCIL OF MAINE • February 15, 2026

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a rule to limit the authority of state and tribal governments to ensure that federally permitted projects – like pipelines, dams, and data centers – do not pollute local rivers, lakes, and drinking water sources. This proposed rollback to the Clean Water Act is intended to fast track the development of new infrastructure like oil and gas pipelines and save developers money, giving industries an easier path to pollute while putting water quality at risk for millions of Americans. This attack on our health and environment simply to protect industry interests cannot stand. Submit a public comment today asking the EPA not to adopt this proposed rule. 

US ocean regulator faces criticism over changes to right whale protection rule

SPECTRUM NEWS • February 15, 2026

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday that it plans to soon announce proposed new rules designed to "modernize" North Atlantic right whale protections. The proposal will be a "deregulatory-focused action" that will seek to "reduce unnecessary regulatory and economic burdens while ensuring responsible conservation practices for endangered North Atlantic right whales." Several environmental groups criticized the move away from vessel speed rules. Some cited the Feb. 10 confirmation of the death of a 3-year-old female whale. Right whales migrate every year from calving grounds off Florida and Georgia to feeding grounds off New England and Canada. Along the way, they are vulnerable to collisions with ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. They were once numerous off the East Coast but were decimated during the commercial whaling era and have been federally protected for decades. 

Opinion: Maine must not go from Vacationland to Generationland

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • February 15, 2026

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, railroad companies marketed Maine to the wealthy of Boston, New York and Philadelphia. By 1936, Maine adopted the nickname Vacationland. Mainers received value in this exchange — employment, tax revenues and support for small businesses. But Mainers have lost access to the majority of the state’s natural beauty, privatized to the benefit of those to our south. For the most part, land privatizations have represented a small percentage of Maine’s actual land, and have not done much to change Maine’s physical landscape. This is about to change, as the other New England states look to Maine to decarbonize their economies. The vast majority of the wind and solar projects will be sited in Maine. New England must become “Nuclearland” or Maine must become “Generationland.” Maine’s renewable resources should be used first by Maine to meet its long-term decarbonization commitments. ~ Richard Silkman, Ph.D., former CEO of Competitive Energy consulting firm in Portland

Letter: Of course the petroleum industry doesn’t want to pay

SUN JOURNAL • February 15, 2026

Drew Ketterer’s Feb. 5 op-ed (“Climate superfund bill is an impractical choice for Maine”), concerning LD 1870, continues the petroleum industry’s history of misleading information (he is an attorney for petroleum companies, no surprise there). A 2025 report, endorsed by 12 national health organizations found 350,000 premature deaths each year in the U.S. due to the fossil fuel industry. The fossil fuel industry and its attorneys will continue to make the perfect the enemy of the good as they obfuscate and delay action to address the pollution and climate change impacts they are directly responsible for causing. ~ Mark Follansbee, Scarborough

Column: These big birds hunt smaller ones at backyard feeders

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 15, 2026

There were 15 mourning doves huddling around my bird feeder. Whoops! Make that 14. In the blink of an eye, the birds exploded into the air and disappeared. Their instant panic could only mean one thing. They were under attack. I ran to the window just in time to spot the expected culprit — a Cooper’s hawk. Whenever we attract birds, we run the risk of attracting other birds that eat them. It’s inevitable that while we watch our birds, other critters are watching them, too. I’m aware I’m feeding more than just the birds. One odd set of footprints caught my eye this morning. I didn’t have to wait long before a snow-white ermine Squirrels are welcome to any seeds that reach the ground. I once thought I was merely feeding birds. Now I think I’m running a zoo. ~ Bob Duchesne

This ‘little’ mountain in western Maine is a great winter trek

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 15, 2026

When I traveled to hike Little Bigelow Mountain, which rises 3,070 feet above sea level, I didn’t let the word “little” lull me into the false impression that the hike would be easy. After all, 3,000 feet is pretty big for a Maine mountain. Out in the state’s western wilderness, Little Bigelow is the sixth and easternmost prominent peak in the Bigelow Mountain Range. Years ago, I visited the range to hike to its highest peak, Avery, at 4,046 feet. That night, I tented out just below the peak, then rose in the morning to trek over to West Peak and the Horns. If I’d been looking for a longer hike, I could have continued another 1.4 miles along Little Bigelow’s lengthy top to its western edge, where a side trail leads to another viewpoint. From there, the AT continues, down to Safford Notch, then up to Avery Peak and onward, all the way to Georgia. ~ Aislinn Sarnacki

Jay Select Board weighs solar farm plan

MAINE MONITOR • February 14, 2026

The Jay Select Board Monday heard plans for what would be the largest solar farm in Maine. Dale Knapp, head of development for Walden Renewables in Portland, said the company is “in the very early stages of developing a project in Jay” and looking for landowners willing to lease property for solar energy arrays. “We build, own and operate the farms,” he said. Walden Renewables is negotiating with the new owners of the former Androscoggin Mill property to lease undeveloped land on the mill site. An operation that size could generate up to 150 megawatts.

Trump administration's repeal of EPA ‘Endangerment Finding’ sparks debate in Maine

NEWS CENTER MAINE • February 14, 2026

The Trump administration has revoked the EPA’s long-standing “endangerment finding,” a scientific determination made during the Obama administration that concluded greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health and welfare. Supporters say the rollback could lower vehicle costs and boost energy independence, while critics warn of environmental and public health risks. "The findings were flawed so it's good to have them updated," State Representative Mike Soboleski, R-Phillips, said. “The repeal of this finding threatens the health of people and our environment immediately,” Kate Sinding Daly, who serves as Vice President for Law and Policy at the Conservation Law Foundation, said.

Letter: It’s time to act on climate change

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 14, 2026

Climate change concerns me greatly, yet it appears to have been put on the back burner. LD 2037 supports the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI supports decreasing the greenhouse gasses that add to global warming. LD 1870 would support some financial incentives for people to lower their carbon emissions. I believe these bills need support from everyone. My husband and I gave up buying toys, going out to dinner regularly, going to shows, and forfeited many vacations so that we could run our house with solar. Many of us could do this, and yes, like us, it means giving up something. Giving up something before we have famine, before fire burns us down, before rain floods us out, and before wind destroys our everything; before rebuilding becomes impossible. It is time to act and put our dreams aside for now. ~ Ann Pedreschi, Holden

Somerset SnowFest kicks off with week of winter activities in Skowhegan

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February x, 2026

Kayaks and kiddie pools, it turns out, work well as sleds. A laundry basket — not so much. That was the lesson learned among competitors in the “Anything But a Sled” downhill race Saturday at the west side of Lake George Regional Park, one of several activities going on as part of the first day of Somerset SnowFest. Among the other popular events Saturday was the fifth annual Ice Hole “World Championship,” which had dozens of competitors. The game is like cornhole, but players toss pucks into two shallow holes in the ice 33 feet apart. A long-running annual winter carnival at Lake George grew into Somerset SnowFest as the local economic revitalization nonprofit Main Street Skowhegan began hosting Skijor Skowhegan in 2019. The two organizations have now joined forces to coordinate the winter event.

A Valentine’s story in the tundra: How two whimbrels reunite each year in Arctic Alaska to mate

MAINE MORNING STAR • February 14, 2026

It may be the most enduring love story in the shorebird world, two birds coming together from different parts of the hemisphere. Hudsonian Whimbrels are famously faithful, often mating for life and returning each May and June to the same stretch of Arctic tundra to breed. What is also noteworthy is that the love story pairs with one of the most astonishing migrations in the natural world. The whimbrel is a striking, long-legged shorebird with a graceful down-curved bill, traveling up to 9,000 miles each year from the high Arctic to the coasts of South America. What makes this story urgent is that the whimbrel is disappearing. Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, populations have declined by as much as 70% over the past two decades due to habitat loss, climate change and disruptions along the very migratory routes they have followed for millennia.

Opinion: Plug-in solar can reduce Maine utility bills

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 14, 2026

Imagine purchasing a device, taking it home, setting it outside on a deck or a wall on a bright afternoon, plugging it in to an approved socket, and tapping into energy emitting photons from a star 91.53 million miles away. Within minutes your dishwasher, your lights will be powered not by costly fossil fuel energy but by the free energy of the sun. Imagine being able to reduce your utility bill by 20 to 40 percent! This scenario isn’t magic. Up to 4 million households in Germany have purchased that device, called plug-in-solar, and are using it, successfully offsetting their utility bills. Mainers could have access to plug-in-solar within the year if legislation is approved. LD 1730 would allow residents to use these devices without the burdensome and expensive interconnection requirements designed for large rooftop arrays. Tell your local representatives that you want them to support LD 1730, the plug-in solar bill. Twenty environmental organizations support this game-changing bill to make clean renewable energy accessible and affordable for all Mainers. ~ Kathleen Sullivan, Freeport

Maine’s lobster hot spot appears to be having a baby boom

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 13, 2026

Scientific surveys show an uptick in the number of baby lobsters, hinting at a possible rebound coming for one of the nation’s most valuable fisheries. A long-running scientific survey shows the number of young-of-year lobsters found in Maine’s most valuable lobster fishing territory — which includes the state’s top five grossing lobster ports — has been above average for the past two years. The resurgence in baby lobsters off Maine’s central coast, from Friendship to Corea, will not “save the day” for the lobster industry. The young-of-year count is still 44% lower than it was two decades ago, he said, and the warming oceans suggest a long-term downward trend. But the uptick of the past two years is good news for the $528.4 million-a-year Maine industry, even if it only represents the stabilization of a population in a part of the state that depends on lobstering.

Another data center proposed, this time in southern Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 13, 2026

A large data center is in the works in southern Maine, Sen. Matt Harrington, R-York, told fellow state lawmakers Thursday, but the details of the project are unclear. Harrington brought up the project as he and other members of the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee discussed a potential moratorium on new data center development in the state. But Harrington said such a moratorium “would harm” a data center proposed in his district “that’s well along in the planning process.” Data centers — facilities that house computers to store data and run online applications and services —  require significant amounts of power to operate. As they rise in prevalence, they could consume up to 12% of the country’s total electricity usage by 2028, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Portland neighbors are suing to halt or scale back Riverton housing project

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 13, 2026

A project approved last year would place two buildings on a 1.5-acre strip of land on Forest Avenue and between the driveway to Talbot Community School and properties on Belfort Street. Since the project was pitched, a group of neighbors — organized as Friends of Belfort — have been rallying against a development that they argue will be disruptive and out of place in an area that already has infrastructure challenges. After the Portland Planning Board approved the project in July 2025, the neighbors filed an appeal, as well as several civil claims against the city and developer Acre Properties, challenging the zoning and the developer’s ownership rights to build the project as designed. The developer threatened to start work regardless of the outcome of the case, leading the group to ask the court for a preliminary injunction that would pause the project until the case is decided.

EPA ruling on climate change could make Maine’s air harder to breathe

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 13, 2026

The Environmental Protection Agency’s repeal of the legal basis for federal climate protections, announced Thursday, has cleared a path for upwind industrial polluters to send a wave of toxic exhaust into Maine — a state that already grapples with one of the highest asthma rates in the nation. Maine has strict clean air regulations and few big polluters, but the EPA’s rollback of the landmark 2009 determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health will strip the federal emission limits off upwind smokestacks and tailpipes in the deregulated Midwest and South. “Maine is already called the ‘tailpipe’ of the nation because of the air pollution that flows from other states into our atmosphere, and this misguided action will only make it worse,” Gov. Janet Mills said,

Maine leaders pitch solutions to enhance grid as temperatures drop and electricity prices soar

MAINE MONITOR • February 13, 2026

Cold snaps like those that recently gripped Maine cause natural gas prices to skyrocket and electricity prices along with them. That’s because natural gas accounted for 55 percent of total electricity generation on the New England grid in 2025. Energy policy consultant Jeremy Payne says it’s taking too long for generation projects such as wind or solar farms to get through initial state environmental review and ultimately connect to the New England grid. Philip Bartlett II, chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, said, “There’s a lot we need to do both in terms of replacing outdated assets but also modernizing the grid so that it can accommodate [electric vehicles] and other [power sources] that we want to put on the grid, and make it much more flexible.” Adding more capacity to the grid to accommodate more renewable energy projects, however, would cost ratepayers more in the short term.

Worried about PFAS in your drinking water? Legislators advance plan to test and treat wells

MAINE MORNING STAR • February 13, 2026

With growing concern about the prevalence of forever chemicals in Mainers’ drinking water, a proposal to fund the testing and clean-up of affected private wells is headed to a vote in the Maine Legislature. Last week, lawmakers on the Environment and Natural Resources Committee voted 9-4 to advance LD 2115, which would establish the Well Contamination Response Fund for private drinking water wells impacted by hazardous materials, including perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. With an initial investment of $1 million from the state’s general fund, the fund would be used for testing, remediation, and the installation and maintenance of filter treatment systems.

Opinion: Global water bankruptcy means a complicated future for Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 12, 2026

According to the United Nations, the supply of water available for human use has been so depleted and polluted that we have crossed into “water bankruptcy.” Maine is a comparatively “wet” place. But that does not confer immunity to the climatic and other stresses underlying global water bankruptcy. Worsening water deficits will reinforce the climate advantages that are already attracting in-migrants to the Pine Tree State. An influx of “water refugees” could enhance the vitality of Maine’s economy and host communities. Agriculture and outdoor recreation, legacy sectors crucial for Maine’s rural vitality, and Maine’s four-season lake and mountain tourist destinations should also benefit. It is paradoxical that Maine might benefit from others’ suffering. This dilemma underscores our moral obligation to steward Maine’s water resources sustainably and equitably. ~ David Vail, professor of economics emeritus at Bowdoin College and a member of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s Economics Research Network

Woodland Pulp’s bleach plant remains closed 2 weeks after UMaine student’s death

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 12, 2026

The bleach plant at Woodland Pulp mill, where a University of Maine student died from a chemical release last month, has been closed since the incident, according to a mill official. UMaine junior Kasie Malcolm, a 20-year-old chemical engineering student and intern at the Woodland Pulp mill, died after being exposed to hydrogen sulfide at the facility’s bleach plant. The gas leak also left nine workers injured. An investigation by OSHA is underway at Woodland Pulp.