NRCM Blog

Weathering the Storm and a Dip in the Icy Atlantic

Having survived (can I say “enjoyed?”) NRCM’s New Year’s Eve day Polar Bear Dip & Dash and welcoming in the New Year with a sunrise walk with the dog through the Spurwink Marsh, I feel like I am entering 2012 with a good reserve of energy and optimism. Looks like we will all need lots of both. Before I go further, let me thank all those runners and dippers who joined us for the Dip and Dash (that's me in the middle, with NRCM Board Treasurer Chris Bond and Executive Director Lisa Pohlmann). Record numbers and lots of enthusiasm—put it on your calendar for December 31, 2012, bring an old pair of sneakers, and the rest is easy.

No sooner had I submitted a letter-to-the-editor of the Portland Press Herald praising the EPA and our Congressional delegation for finally enacting strong controls on mercury than our governor’s administration garners front-page attention by stating it costs $6,000 to keep a pound of mercury out of our environment. This mercury, if not reclaimed, could end up in our land, or water, or head to be burned in an incinerator and become airborne.

Our long-standing commitment to the North Woods faces another key test January 10th when the Superior Court hears oral arguments on our Plum Creek appeal. Remember, we appealed the initial LURC decision based on two key areas. First, was the issue of “paid mitigation,” an oxymoron if there ever was one. Plum Creek was reimbursed for conservation that they were required to provide to offset the damage that would result if the company’s  massive Moosehead development becomes reality. Second was the impropriety of LURC commissioners voting to approve Plum Creek’s revamped development application without proper and required public input. We won our appeal, and this most recent court appearance is the appeal of that decision. Our attorney, Russ Pierce, has done great work throughout this process and will be representing us.

I’d like to end with a sincere thanks to you all for your loyalty to and generous financial support of NRCM. You have helped us weather the “perfect storm” of challenges, continued economic recession, a transition at the senior leadership position, and a hostile state administration and Legislature. To have faced those challenges and emerged in our current strong position is really a testament to your commitment to protecting the nature of the state we love. Full speed ahead.

Tony Owens, MD
NRCM Board President

Mean Mr. Grinch Thwarted this Holiday Season

On a recent blustery winter day, I found myself skulking and slinking around Portland’s Monument Square dressed as Dr. Seuss’ the Grinch. Sporting a three-piece, pinstriped suit and hauling bags of dirty coal over my shoulder, I spread holiday fear wherever I went. But why, you ask? I have never considered myself a Grinch by any means, especially during the holiday season. I love all that this time of year offers, especially here in Maine. I enjoy the powdery snow that blankets our rolling hills, skating on frozen ponds, and breathing the crisp, clean air. So why the Grinch outfit, you ask?

I was acting in a fun street theater performance co-sponsored by NRCM applauding new standards that will clean up Maine’s air! Thanks to new standards issued by the EPA regulating air emission of mercury, arsenic, nickel, selenium, and cyanide from the nation’s dirtiest power plants, Mainers can all breathe a bit easier this holiday season! The new Mercury and Air Toxics Standard will slash domestic mercury air emissions by 90 percent by requiring all power plants to utilize existing pollution abatement technology.

To raise awareness about this important new public health safeguard, we pitted the Grinch (think dirty coal-fired power plants) against Santa Claus (think EPA) in a street theater performance. As Santa stuffed Maine’s Christmas stocking with presents representing clean air, safe children, and healthy wildlife, the Grinch tried to put dirty coal in Maine’s stocking. Thanks to the EPA’s new rules, I think we all know how that turned out.

The EPA estimates that the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard will prevent 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year in the United States. The standards will also help America’s children grow up healthier – preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms. This is especially good news for Maine which is downwind from so many coal-fired power plants and has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. This is why Maine has been dubbed the “tailpipe state” of the nation.

Power plants are responsible for half of the mercury and over 75 percent of the acid gas emissions in the United States.  Today, more than half of all domestic coal-fired power plants already utilize pollution control technologies. Once implemented, these new standards will ensure the remaining plants – about 40 percent of all domestic coal-fired power plants - take similar steps to clean up their act. This will save lives, prevent diseases, protect our children’s healthy, and reduce mercury pollution in our lakes, rivers, and streams.

NRCM is pleased that the Obama administration made good on its promise for clean, healthy air this holiday season. We urge Maine Senators Snowe and Collins not to be Grinches and to protect the health of Maine families by voting against all efforts to delay air pollution rules in Congress.

-Todd Martin, NRCM Outreach Coordinator

Blue Christmas…but hope for a “green” New Year

My family has a lot of holiday traditions: decorating the tree while listening to carols, making gingerbread cookies, going to visit my great aunt and uncle – bringing them some of Mom’s homemade Christmas bread and my aunt giving us her delicious homemade Chex mix. But, my favorite tradition started several years ago (before there were CD players in vehicles) on a ride home from my grandmother’s house.

My mom is an Elvis fan. Always has been. Always will be. So, we would get excited whenever Elvis’ “Blue Christmas” came on the radio. My mom, who is not a “singer,” would start belting out Elvis’ part, and my sister and I would sing the “ooh, ooh, ooh” back up parts. We wouldn’t win any singing contests, but we would giggle with delight as we headed home singing as if we WERE Elvis and his back-up singers. And to complete the tradition, my elderly stepfather would quietly reach up and turn off his hearing aid. And a Merry Christmas was had by all.

So, while we wait and hope for a “Blue Christmas” – my hopes for the New Year are that it is not blue, but instead “green.” Last January, a lot of us felt “blue,” because the governor and his Administration proposed rollbacks to important, long-standing laws that protect our clean air, healthy waters and wildlife, and vibrant forests. Governor LePage wanted to eliminate Maine’s wildly successful bottle recycling bill. End the ban on billboards on Maine roadsides. Reduce protections to important wildlife habitat on shorelands, in wetlands, and vernal pools. And the list goes on and on.

Luckily, NRCM and our members, supporters, friends, and the public spoke out loudly and often to legislators, the governor’s office, committees and state agencies saying that Maine’s environment should be protected and not open for the business of destroying it for the sake of polluting companies who don’t care about Maine’s natural resources.

Well, it’s nearly 2012 and the start of a new legislative session. We defeated most rollback bills last year, but we can be sure that more are on the way. That’s why we can’t sit back and wait for others to do the work of protecting Maine’s air, water, wildlife, and forests. We need to start contacting our legislators today to urge them to support bills that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, protect Maine’s 10.4-million-acre North Woods, protect Maine’s wildlife, and reduce toxic pollution from consumer products.

If you haven’t yet signed up for NRCM’s Action Network, please do so today. Visit http://supporters.nrcm.org/Action_Network_signup and sign up to receive emails about projects that interest you. You will then receive emails when your voice is most needed to protect the Maine we know and love, now and for future generations.

Happy Holidays!

Beth Dimond
NRCM Public Affairs Coordinator

New Web Feature: Updates from the State House

With so much happening at the Legislature on bills that will affect Maine’s environment, we know that it’s hard to keep track of important developments. That’s why NRCM has   launched a new feature on our website that provides fresh updates and news. We encourage you to check out this new feature, which will report both the good news and bad news on our efforts to stop rollbacks of laws that protect Maine’s land, air, and water. 

Just yesterday, for example, the DEP Commissioner Darryl Brown testified in strong support of a bill that would dramatically weaken regulation of development. The bill was developed by the Maine Realtors and Developers Association (MEREDA), which gave an award last year to Darryl Brown. Also up yesterday was a bill that would undermine DEP’s regulation of “overboard discharge systems,” which pose a threat to coastal water quality and clam flats. The Maine Clammers Association slammed the bill as a threat to their ability to provide a living for their families. Further information like this is featured in the updates posted from yesterday.

This new State House Updates feature is a companion to our legislative tracking page, which provides a list of bills were working on, along with position memos describing NRCM’s views and links to testimony delivered by NRCM staff.

Together, these web features should help you stay up-to-date on the latest developments from Augusta – where the pace of activity is intense, and NRCM staff are at work every day trying to stop the rollbacks of Maine’s environmental laws.

Pete Didisheim
Advocacy Director 

 

Join Us February 14 in Augusta: Notes from the Auburn Hearing

The Regulatory Fairness hearings being held around the state by the Legislative Regulatory Reform Committee are bringing out large numbers of Maine citizens and business owners who want to see Maine’s environmental standards strengthened, not weakened. During the hearings there have been specific suggestions to improve the implementation of particular laws, but generally, little to no call for complete repeal of any laws. 

I attended the Auburn hearing on February 3 that was covered by the Lewiston Sun http://www.sunjournal.com/city/story/981130. During the time I was there, most people spoke about the importance of protecting Maine’s natural resources and the quality of life they provide. Buzz Lamb, a retired computer industry businessman from New Gloucester and NRCM board member, spoke from more than 40 years experience working with industries throughout Maine, including forest products, wholesale, retail, manufacturing, transportation, and health care industries. He challenged the premise put forward by the LePage Administration that regulation was killing jobs, noting instead that the real causes of job loss in Maine have been the rise of big box stores that eliminated healthy downtown retail districts; consolidations in wholesale distribution, banking, insurance and other industries that moved headquarters and jobs out-of-state; global labor rates that drew shoe and textile manufacturing jobs overseas, and the resulting decline of many other supporting jobs in the community. He said, “I find blaming Maine’s business environment on environmental regulation to be very misguided. In fact, it makes me question whether or not the governor’s team has done an adequate job in problem determination.” 

Buzz argued against the environmental rollbacks proposed by the LePage administration and some current legislators, saying that they will increase long-term costs to both business and government due to the rise in cost associated with toxics clean up, public health, and sprawl. He specifically discussed the legislative proposal to weaken shoreland zoning laws. As the owner of approximately 3000 feet of farm and woodland affected by shoreland zoning, he said the proposal of a 75 foot setback (instead of the present 250 feet) could not be proposed “with a straight face.” He said that 75 feet does not even begin to address the run off issues facing our lakes and streams during spring run off and heavy rains. “Once eutrophication (the introduction of artificial substances to a fresh water system) begins, it is difficult to stop and eventually feeds itself. The long term costs of watershed deterioration will be very high, including clean up costs, land value decline, expensive filtration equipment for public water supplies, and flood damage from faster run off.” He does not find being a good shoreland steward “onerous or difficult.” See Buzz’s full testimony here. 

Comments like these from Buzz Lamb about actual experience with our environmental standards in Maine have been delivered by hundreds of people throughout the hearing process. We hope the Legislature will listen and submit real solutions to real problems, rather than gut environmental laws that continue to serve Maine citizens well. 

If you have not contacted your legislator yet to express your concerns about the proposed environmental rollbacks, I encourage you to do so today. You can learn more at our website, where you can also find contact information for your legislator, at http://www.nrcm.org/stop_environmental_rollbacks.asp.

You can also join us for the final hearing in Augusta in Room 208, Cross State Office Building, Capitol Street, on Monday, February 14 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to say a few words to the committee. Join us at noon for a rally to protect Maine’s environment in the Hall of Flags at the State House. Hope to see you there!

-Lisa Pohlmann, NRCM Executive Director

Speaking Out to Protect Children's Health

I just came back from a press event where I got to speak alongside physicians, small business owners, public health advocates, concerned parents and their children, and legislators in support of Maine’s chemical safety laws. We worked with our friends in the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine to hold the event to celebrate and defend the Kid-Safe Products Law and Maine’s other chemical safety laws.  

Maine’s Kid-Safe Products Law helps parents protect their kids by convening a scientific process to identify and phase out the “worst-of-the-worst” toxic chemicals in products we use every day. It offers common sense solutions to reduce the heavy burden of costly chronic disease that affects every family, school district, and business in Maine – preventable diseases linked to toxic chemicals like learning disabilities, lead poisoning, asthma and cancer. 

We had originally convened the press event as a way to celebrate these laws and thank legislators who had sponsored and voted for them. Unfortunately, Governor LePage proposed repealing the Kid-Safe Products Law and others earlier this week in the Phase I Regulatory Reform Proposal. 

Representative Dana Dow (R-Waldoboro) delivered powerful remarks in support of the law he co-sponsored and helped to pass with overwhelming bipartisan support (35-0 in the Senate and 129-9 in the House) when he served in the Senate in 2008.  Emily Cain (D-Orono and House Democratic Leader) also spoke eloquently about how protecting kids from toxic chemicals is “just common sense.”  We couldn’t agree more, and hope that the Governor can be persuaded to drop this part of his agenda.  Please make your voice heard on these matters by contacting your legislators here: http://www.nrcm.org/stop_environmental_rollbacks.asp

Here's my statement from today's event: 

I am pleased to stand here today with legislators, business people, physicians, and concerned parents to celebrate the progress made to protect Maine families from toxic chemicals. We’re here today to say: Maine’s safer chemical laws are working. They offer common sense solutions to reducing the heavy burden of costly chronic disease that affects every family and business in Maine - diseases that are almost entirely preventable. 

At least $380 million is spent every year in Maine on health costs related to toxic chemicals, including learning disabilities, cancer, asthma, and lead poisoning. We’re shocked that the Governor has chosen to target these laws and the rule that will get bisphenol-A out of baby bottles and sippy cups, something that 10 other states comprising more than half of the nation’s population have already done - a recommendation that was approved unanimously by the Board of Environmental Protection after they looked exhaustively at the scientific basis for why is it critical to phase out the use of this endocrine disrupting chemical from our reusable food and beverage containers. 

We believe the administration’s proposal takes us in exactly the wrong direction.  We need lawmakers to focus on keeping the Kid-Safe Products Act working as it was intended – helping parents protect their kids by getting the worst-of-the-worst chemicals out of products we all use every day. Children should be safe at school too. We need lawmakers to make sure kids aren’t exposed to pesticides on school grounds. And we need to help our communities get more dangerous chemicals out of our landfills and our ground water by creating more public/private partnerships that encourage recycling. These are the types of things lawmakers could and should be focused on, not doing the industry’s bidding by rolling back solutions that protect kids and support our small businesses.

The public supports these laws; legislators support these laws; the only group that doesn’t want these laws is the chemical industry.  We’re surprised and concerned that the Governor seems to be putting the desires of an out-of-state industry over the needs of Maine families and small businesses. We’re also dismayed that the Governor seems to think the federal government’s ‘bare minimums’ are good enough for Maine.  Congress hasn’t updated our federal chemical laws in over 30 years, despite mountains of new science that proves harm beyond doubt. 

Let’s face it, no jobs are going to be created by making children more vulnerable to disease. But by moving forward with more collaborative common sense solutions to the problem of toxic chemicals, we CAN create new jobs in innovation, manufacturing, and product recycling.

Our recognition and thanks go to the 164 Maine lawmakers who voted for the Kid-Safe Products Act in 2008, including the 74 who are currently serving in the 125th Legislature.  We appreciate your leadership and we look forward to working with you to keep Maine moving forward with safer chemicals, healthy families, and lower costs for everyone.

Thank you.

Matt Prindiville
Clean Production Project Director, Legislative Coordinator

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Maine People and the Environment: Report from the Roundtable

More than 500 citizens from across the state poured into the Augusta Civic Center on January 20th to participate in the first public meeting with Governor LePage about the importance of environmental protection to Maine's economic and public health. A panel of 28 businesses, sportsmen, health professionals, religious leaders, and youth discussed how the laws that have cleaned up once heavily polluted rivers, have kept Maine's woods and fish stocks intact, have kept our landscapes protected and relatively pristine, and have cleaned up our air - and saved us money -- by conserving energy, are necessary and welcome to those who have chosen to set up businesses in Maine, have worked the land for generations, or visit here to enjoy our quality of life.

NRCM is proud to have sponsored this event with numerous partner organizations and to have seen so many members from the NRCM family across the state in attendance. We have shown once again that the people of Maine are deeply committed to environmental protections and are willing to stand up and fight for them. Please see the extensive news coverage here: http://www.nrcm.org/news.asp

We will soon be posting the remarks of the panelists, as well as video of the event, but today's snow slowed us down a bit. Check our website next week (www.nrcm.org) for more from the Roundtable.

Here are some of the remarks from the panelists, who we thank so much for participating in this event:

William Bennett, Pres. & CEO, of Oakhurst: "After all the cows that produce Oakhurst milk literally eat drink and breathe the Maine environment so it's in everyone's best interest to keep Maine's environment clean, safe and healthy."

Unity College student Deirdre Birbeck also had a chance to speak directly to the Governor. "It seems to me that my generation's future jobs will depend on careful stewarding of our natural resources."
 
“If our coastal waters are not clean, it is impossible for all commercial fishermen, not just clammers, to market the Maine brand,” said Chad Coffin, president of the Maine Clammers Association.

“Regulations aren’t perfect, and some may need fixing,” said Harry Dwyer, a licensed forester and logger who owns Ghost Dance Forestry in Fayette. “But regulations are not the enemy. They are an important tool” to protect resources for future generations.

Horace “Hoddy” Hildreth, a former Republican state senator who is chairman of Diversified Communications, a company with 200 employees, said many of the laws protecting Maine’s air, land and water were enacted by Republican-controlled legislatures responding to the industrial abuses of the 1960s and 1970s.

“Their implementation has from time to time caused frustration and even outrage,” Hildreth said. “But I submit to you that working on the regulations to make sure they are responsive to the plain intent of the statutes is a better way to go than gutting or repealing the laws.”

Corky Ellis, founder and Chairman of Kepware, a software company in Portland, says they could have moved to North Carolina or Texas with lower taxes and minimal environmental regulations, but they wanted to live in Maine. "Please bear in mind that many businesses like ours are here in Maine precisely because of the protected beauty and the conservation efforts of the past."

And MPBN's news story quoted Ernie Hilton, former chair of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection (read and listen to the full MPBN news story here):

Ernie Hilton is a lifelong Republican, an attorney and civil engineer from Madison who previously chaired Maine's Board of Environmental Protection, and whose wife chairs the Land Use Regulation Commission, or LURC.

Hilton says he's worried Maine's quality of place may be threatened as the new administration and Legislature look to relax environmental permitting and reuglations and do away with agencies such as LURC, which governs zoning and planning in Maine's North Woods.

"I'm concerned when I see, as I did yesterday, a list of some of the statutes which are pending before the Legislature dealing with shoreland zoning and with LURC, and it strikes me as being a race to the bottom approach to our environment," Hilton said.

Hilton says it's not environmental rules or regulations that are the biggest impediments to job creation in Maine but rather the high cost of health care. He points out that over the last eight years more than 10,000 permits by rule were issued for small projects, and $5 billion dollars worth of major projects permitted by the Department of Environmental Protection alone.

 
 

Maine Protects Families from Toxic BPA

It’s Thursday, December 16th, and I am just back from the Board of Environmental Protection meeting where they took a significant step forward to protect Maine families from the toxic chemical bisphenol-A (BPA).

During a six-month public hearing and comment period, the BEP heard the consensus of the nation’s top scientists that BPA is dangerous, even in small doses, such as those we are exposed to every day in products such as food and beverage containers including sippy cups and baby bottles. BPA is an endocrine disrupting chemical that can reduce immune function, impair brain development, has been linked to diseases like breast and prostate cancers later in life.   

Ninety-three percent of us are walking around with BPA in our bodies at levels that may be harmful, due to activities like eating canned food or drinking out of polycarbonate plastic bottles or painting the floor with epoxy paint. Experts around the world are saying that these chemicals are a risk to human health. Fortunately, we can do something about this, and here in Maine, we are. 

Businesses large and small, ranging from the Belfast Co-op to Whole Foods urged BEP to get BPA out of consumer products. Also, big companies like Nestle, Heinz, and General Mills have pledged to eliminate BPA from their food packaging. 

Beyond the action today, NRCM also urged BEP to restrict BPA in infant formula and baby food packaging and substitute safer alternatives that are already available. We hope DEP will move quickly to develop recommendations for meeting this goal, to further reduce exposure to BPA by children. 

This law and this rule are about protecting Maine children’s health.  Today we are one step closer to doing so.  

Thanks to everyone who showed up at the hearing or submitted comments (you can read my testimony on behalf of NRCM here).  This would not have happened without you!

- Matt Prindiville, NRCM Clean Production Project Director

 

Governor-elect Excludes Enviros from Recent Forum

Did you see this front-page story on 12/1/10’s Portland Press Herald and other newspapers?

“Business Leaders Target Red Tape: Advocates for the environment, consumers, public health take no part in meeting”

http://www.kjonline.com/news/businessleaderstargetred-tape_2010-11-30.html

The piece describes how Gov.-elect Paul LePage is asking businesses and industry groups to help him reduce the regulations they believe hinder economic development. Twenty-eight representatives of these groups met with LePage and listed regulations they described as burdensome—issues related to the environment, civil rights, public health, child labor laws and tax policy. Unfortunately, environmental groups, public health advocates, and consumer advocates were not invited to the forum. NRCM Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim was interviewed for the story. "There are many voices that need to be he heard," said Didisheim. "This is not a balanced and fair approach to the policy process."

It does, however, provide insight into the direction the LePage Administration is likely headed regarded his view of protections put in place to protect Maine families and the state’s natural resource-based economy. You can read the full article here.

To stay informed about issues like these that put Maine’s environment at risk, and to hear about ways you can help make a difference, join NRCM’s Action Network.

New Video: The Story of Electronics (and e-waste)

Hot of the presses! The Story of Stuff project has just released an excellent new 7-minute film, the Story of Electronics. You may already be familiar with the Story of Stuff Project’s series of wildly popular and fun web videos that expose the hidden costs of all the consumer products we buy and toss at alarming rates. This new film takes on the electronics industry’s “designed for the dump” mentality, and asks, why do we throw away millions of tons of electronics every year, and what does that mean for the planet?

Check it out at: http://storyofelectronics.org

As you may remember, in 2004, NRCM led the campaign for Maine, which became the first state to require computer and television manufacturers to set up e-waste collection centers and pay for the costs of environmentally safe recycling. Since then, Maine has recycled over 30 million pounds of e-waste, saved taxpayers more than $20 million dollars, and prevented more than 6 million pounds of lead and other toxics from entering our environment. This breakthrough paved the way for other states to follow and helped to spur on the movement for e-waste recycling in the United States. Since 2004, 23 other states have followed Maine’s lead, enacting producer responsibility laws to recycle unwanted electronics. 

More good news: Collecting, hauling, and recycling is all now being done by private companies. New businesses have been created and existing businesses have expanded, creating jobs and helping to build out Maine’s clean tech economy.

Our law originally only covered TVs, computers, laptops, and monitors. In 2009, NRCM led an effort to expand the law to incorporate video game consoles, printers, and additional digital display devices. Maine people now have convenient opportunities to recycle these products, but there are many more electronics products that can and should be recycled. Canadian provinces and the European Union are developing e-waste programs that require manufacturers to recycle everything “with a plug or battery.” 

There are many opportunities to recycle your electronic products. To learn more about where to take your old unwanted electronics, visit our website.

-Matt Prindiville, Clean Production Project Director