Green Options » Maine

Grayson Speaks Truth and Fire

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:42:02 +0000

Florida Rep. Alan Grayson has just utterly transformed the health care debate in the United States with his speech from the House floor. “I’m just saying what everyone else has been thinking,” explains Grayson.

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Pump Hydro Underground to Store Wind Power

Susan Kraemer — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:34:18 +0000

Pumped hydro storage is a simple technology already in wide use. Pump water up a hill when you have available energy, let it fall when you need its power.

But Riverbank Power; a new start-up founded by a former wind developer who wants to develop large-scale energy storage, is trying out a new idea. Instead of using hills for the height, it will go the other way. Down into the ground.

Their Aquabank would let gravity drop water underground to turn turbines and make hydro electricity. That electricity would be sent from underground to the grid day time. At night, when excess wind is available; wind powered electricity would gently push the water back up to replenish its surface source.

Video after the jump:

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Man Busted for Killing Endangered Lynx by Taking Carcass to Taxidermist

Rhishja Larson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:33:52 +0000

U.S. District Court has sentenced a Vermont man to a week in jail for killing an endangered lynx - after he left the carcass with a taxidermist for mounting.

According to the Bangor Daily News, Vermont Fish and Wildlife officials were tipped off by the taxidermist, who said the man claimed he thought was “shooting at a coyote” while enjoying a deer hunting excursion in Maine.

This marks the third time in less than three years that someone has been sentenced for killing an endangered Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis).

U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk believed the jail time was necessary, saying that

We have the Endangered Species Act to protect, restore and save these types of animals. I do think this defendant deserves jail time. Just a fine would be a meaningless punishment.

The man who killed the lynx, Alan B. Clark Jr. 38, of South Hero, VT, admitted to Kravchuk that he knew it was a lynx when he took it to the taxidermist, and pleaded guilty to the federal misdemeanor crime of possession of unlawfully taken wildlife.

Although Clark faced up to six months in jail, and a fine up to $25,000, his attorney got him a reduced sentence, citing “recent chronic health problems” and “inability to work.” Clark’s jail time starts Thursday afternoon at the Penobscot County jail.

Apparently, Clark’s right to possess guns and hunt will not be affected by the conviction.

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Show Me the Money: More Recovery Act Funding Put Toward State Energy Programs

Ruedigar Matthes — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:50:43 +0000

More money was distributed today by the Department of Energy. 141 million dollars to be more precise. This time Hawaii, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, the Northern Mariana Islands and Texas will play beneficiaries of the Recovery Act.

As a part of the Department’s State Energy Program, which has been apportioned $3.1 billion, states and territories propose plans to prioritize energy savings, create or retain jobs, increase the use of renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And that’s where this $141 million will be going. Each state receives funding according to its needs (population based), with Texas receiving more than half of the allotted $141 million dollars. They will receive $87.5 million.

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Incubating Hope: An Egg Found In Maine Brings New Hope to the Audubon Society

Ruedigar Matthes — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:42:30 +0000

As a child, eggs were special one day of the year: Easter. Back then an egg was a treasure. But since my parents stopped hiding eggs for me, eggs haven’t held much meaning. White and, well, egg-shaped, they help me when I need to make a quick meal or mix up some cookie dough. But that’s about it. For me anyway. For some an egg means everything.

For the first time in over a century, a Common Murre egg has been found south of the Canadian border on the east coast, bringing hope to the hearts of those working to restore the bird to the sub-Canadian region.

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Bald Eagles Rebounding in Michigan and Maine

Jake Richardson — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:03:58 +0000

Bald eagles in both Michigan and Maine have been removed from the endangered species list.

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The Newest Hedge Against Industrial Food, Bad Economy? Backyard Chickens

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:39:40 +0000

I’ve written before about communities in the U.S. that have changed their laws to allow homeowners to keep chickens in their backyards. Now I’ve found some great resources for those in the pro-poultry movement,which a new report from the Worldwatch Institute describes as an underground “urban chicken” movement sweeping across the U.S:

“It’s no longer something kinky or interesting,” Jac Smit, president of the Urban Agriculture Network, tells Worldwatch writer Ben Block. “The ‘chicken underground’ has really spread so widely and has so much support.”

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Another Town Mulls Urban Chicken OK

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:32:21 +0000

It seems that self-sufficiency and raising your own food is winning increasing approval from officialdom in the U.S., with Falmouth, Maine, possibly becoming the next town to OK the keeping of chickens in residential areas.

The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram reports that the Falmouth Town Council expects to vote next month on a zoning change that would allow backyard poultry-keeping in neighborhoods throughout town. Currently, only four parts of Falmouth have the OK to raise chickens in residential areas.

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Conservationists to Purchase and Destroy Two Maine Dams

Alex Felsinger — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:10:04 +0000

Through a combination of federal grants and private donations, a coalition of seven conservation groups called the Penobscot River Restoration Trust have gathered enough money to purchase and demolish two dams and install a fish bypass on another. By doing so, they hope to replenish the thinning Atlantic salmon, river herring, and many other migratory fish populations.

While the move is unprecedented, it is not without some flaws.

The PPL Corporation, the power company which currently owns the dams, currently has no plans to replace the lost power with a new sustainable source. Instead it has increased the output from three up-river dams and intends to reactivate the turbines on another currently inactive dam…

[Read the rest of this entry at CleanTechnica.]

Should the results remain positive, this project is expected to take five years after FERC approval, and be complete by mid decade. One plus for the Maine site is that it is already close to the grid - it is sited near a nuclear power plant site decommissioned a decade ago.

More importantly, perhaps; local governments and communities in the Wiscasset area are supportive of renewable energy projects. Maine already boasts by far the most renewable energy of any state - 30%. And that’s not counting an additional 22% of hydro power.

Like conventional hydro power this project involves diverting river water, so fish are obviously an issue:

Riverbank is looking at the best technology to significantly mitigate the impact of the projects on fish and fish habitat. To avoid sucking up fish inadvertently, the initial intake from the river is extremely slow and filtered so that the natural flow of the river remains unaltered, unlike conventional hydro power.

Given that the water is stored underground only for a short time, the pumping does not change the quality or temperature of the water before it is returned to the river.

The financing is unusual for these hard times and decidedly trepid investors:

CEO Douglas is not applying for stimulus funding.

BlackRock Inc, an asset manager with more than $1 trillion under management, is an investor. Each 1,000 megawatt storage facility will cost $2 billion.

Riverbank CEO Douglas said the company has already had a lot of interest in power contracts, and he expects to turn this into power purchase agreements. PPAs could be used to help finance the $2 billion each 1,000 MW project costs.

“We think we can procure unwanted wind energy at night in the off-peak, surplus wind energy, and create a 100% green capacity product to sell the next day,” he said. “In that case, it is 100% renewable, and we will have a renewable energy credit to resell.

It’s not a bad investment. The turbines use no fossil fuels, and each facility should last 100 years.

If each 1,000 MW project produces for 100 years, it should pay for the initial $2 Billion investment many times over, while creating jobs and giving green energy developers a solid market for their power.

Douglas points out:

“Even if we were buying coal at night for our pumping, there’s still a huge carbon win here, because we’re precluding the need for a new fossil peaker plant.”

Images from Riverbank , Flikr user ben, and Steve Jurvetson
Via Energy Bulletin

Back to School Week: Which Colleges Are Greenest?

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:36:24 +0000

As college students across the U.S. begin heading back to school, some will be returning to campuses that are greener than most.

According to the Princeton Review’s new Green Ratings for institutions of higher learning, 11 colleges stood out from the national field of 534. All 11 earned a rating of 99, the highest score possible in the Princeton Review’s new tally.

So which schools are tops in all things green?

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Back to School Week: Miami, Bowdoin Ban Student Cars

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:55:38 +0000

We’re seeing a lot more sustainability-minded colleges, universities and even high schools encouraging their students to walk or bike, rather than drive, to classes. But two institutions of higher learning, one in the north, one in the south, are taking things even further by banning on-campus cars for all incoming freshmen.

For the first time ever, the University of Miami is prohibiting cars for freshmen starting this fall. Instead, new students, returning students and faculty alike will be able to travel around campus and the city using fuel-efficient cars available through a university partnership with Zipcar. The car-sharing program offers users hourly, daily or annual access to cars when needed, gas and insurance costs included.

The Zipcar option will also be offered at Maine’s Bowdoin College, where first-year students will be barred from having on-campus cars starting next fall (2009).

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Conservationists to Purchase and Destroy Two Maine Dams

Alex Felsinger — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:57:00 +0000

While the move is unprecedented, it is not without some flaws.

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Dwindling Life on Earth

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:16:47 +0000

Today is Endangered Species Day in the U.S., and the timing couldn’t be more sadly appropriate.

On the same day designated as Endangered Species Day by U.S. Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Dianne Feinstein (California) comes news from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that Earth has lost nearly a third of its biodiversity over the past 37 years.

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Trendy Thieves Eye Used Grease, Metals

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:38:07 +0000

Rising prices for everything from copper and platinum to flour, gas and cooking oil are creating new markets for trend-minded thieves across the U.S.

With gasoline prices in the U.S. breaking new records weekly, for example, law enforcement officials are seeing more cases of cooking grease thefts from fast-food establishments and other restaurants. Why used grease? Because cooking oil can be converted into biodiesel fuel that can be sold at a cool profit.

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Bowdoin Gets “Maine-stream” Wind Power

Jake Kulju — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:34:02 +0000

Liberal arts college Bowdoin College, located in Brunswick, Maine, recently announced that it will purchase green power from the 42-MW Mars Hill wind project. Owned by UPC Wind, the Northern Maine-based Mars Hill wind project will provide Bowdoin with renewable energy certificates (RECs) that will offset approximately 70% of campus electricity use over the next three years.

The voluntary REC purchases from UPC Wind will put Bowdoin at an impressive 100% green power usage level—well above the the requirements of Maine’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS).

“Our primary focus has been and will continue to be switching to lower carbon fuels and increased energy efficiency, but as we seek to become carbon neutral, purchasing offsets are a necessity,” explains S. Catherine Longley, Bowdoin’s Sr. V.P. for Finance and Administration & Treasurer and chair of the College’s climate commitment group. “We are excited that the Mars Hill wind project allows us to procure wind RECs locally.”

Of course, this isn’t Bowdoin’s first step toward a more ecologically responsible approach to the world. In 2006 the college signed the Maine Governor’s Carbon Challenge agreeing to reduce emissions to 11 percent below 2002 levels by 2010. They easily surpassed that goal in 2007.
Bowdoin also joined the EPA Green Power Partner Program in 2006, and the recent move to 100% green power ensures that they will remain in the EPA Program through 2010.

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EPA Chief on Hot Seat Over California Emissions Denial

Max Lindberg — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:19:29 +0000

Last December, EPA administrator Stephen Johnson denied California’s request to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Today, the Senate released documents putting Johnson squarely in opposition with the scientific and legal experts on his staff when he denied the request.The documents were requested by Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who said:

“These documents paint a picture of an Environmental Protection Agency in crisis. They show the dedicated professional staff of the EPA working hard to do what they are paid to do by the American people - protect our health and our environment. At the same time, we see more and more evidence of Administrator Johnson ignoring the science and the facts, and discarding the advice of his professional staff.”

“I believe this decision will be reversed by the next President or by the courts, but the Administrator can save the taxpayers time and money, and can get us started cleaning up our air if he would simply follow the law, the facts, and the advice of his agency professionals.”

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Welcome to EcoLocalizer!

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:48:47 +0000

It’s been said that all politics is local, but environmentalism works the same way: knowing that far-flung parts of the world face environmental problems is one thing, but seeing environmental problems in our own backyards makes us take things far more personally. It’s NIMBY in reverse.

In the U.S., every state in the Union — from California’s legal hassles with the feds over its greenhouse gas emissions standards to Georgia’s water struggles — faces its own unique environmental challenges and opportunities. The challenges, in particular, seem to be growing daily.

And that’s where EcoLocalizer comes in. Our goal is to provide you — both readers in the U.S. and readers elsewhere who are interested in state-side concerns — with highly local news and commentary about environmental issues from Hawaii to Maine. It’s not even necessarily stuff that attracts traditional media attention, but it’s serious for the people who live there, which is why we cover it.

Like conventional hydro power this project involves diverting river water, so fish are obviously an issue:

Given that the water is stored underground only for a short time, the pumping does not change the quality or temperature of the water before it is returned to the river.

The financing is unusual for these hard times and decidedly trepid investors:

CEO Douglas is not applying for stimulus funding.

BlackRock Inc, an asset manager with more than $1 trillion under management, is an investor. Each 1,000 megawatt storage facility will cost $2 billion.

It’s not a bad investment. The turbines use no fossil fuels, and each facility should last 100 years.

Douglas points out:

“Even if we were buying coal at night for our pumping, there’s still a huge carbon win here, because we’re precluding the need for a new fossil peaker plant.”

Images from Riverbank , Flikr user ben, and Steve Jurvetson
Via Energy Bulletin