AUGUSTA — Maine is already a leader in working to reduce carbon emissions through a regional partnership, but new federal regulations will bring relief to its residents by improving air quality and reducing the impacts of global warming, lawmakers and environmental groups said Monday. Under the sweeping new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plan announced Monday […]
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Posted inBusiness, sj-web
EPA proposal would cut Maine power plant emissions by 13.5 percent
PORTLAND — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants Maine power plants to reduce emissions by 13.5 percent in 16 years, as part of a national plan to reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The proposed rule signed Monday by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy seeks to meet the national goal by giving states until June […]
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Supreme Court upholds EPA effort to limit air pollution drifting east
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday handed the Obama administration an important victory in its effort to reduce power plant pollution in more than two dozen Midwestern and Southern states, which blows downwind and leads to unhealthy air. The decision caps a decades-long effort by the Environmental Protection Agency to find a legally acceptable […]
Posted inLetters
B. Allen: Common sense, lifesaving efforts
Recently, the Obama administration proposed strengthening fuel efficiency standards for new medium- and heavy-duty trucks to reduce the carbon pollution causing climate change and making people sick. Those standards require new medium- and heavy-duty trucks to get more than 50 miles per gallon, saving trucking companies money in fuel costs. What is not to like […]
Posted inRiver Valley
NewPage mill state’s top polluter, according to 2012 data
RUMFORD — The NewPage paper mill in Rumford was the state’s largest producer of toxic waste in 2012, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency’s Toxic Release Inventory analysis showed that 88 facilities in Maine released about about 11½ million pounds of toxic waste directly into the air, water and land in 2012, an […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Lewiston-Auburn, The Franklin Journal
State agencies offer free pesticide disposal
AUGUSTA — Mainers are urged to take advantage of a free opportunity to dispose of banned or unusable pesticides that they may have in their homes or elsewhere on their properties. This October, the Maine Board of Pesticides Control will team up with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to dispose of banned pesticides or […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Obama moves to limit power-plant carbon pollution
WASHINGTON (AP) — Linking global warming to public health, disease and extreme weather, the Obama administration pressed ahead Friday with tough requirements to limit carbon pollution from new power plants, despite protests from industry and Republicans that it would dim coal’s future. The proposal, which would set the first national limits on heat-trapping pollution from […]
Posted inBusiness, sj-web
Environmentalists decry proposal to loosen smog rules; paper mill officials say change will spur job creation
AUGUSTA — Business groups squared off against environmentalists and health experts Tuesday during a hearing on a plan by the state Department of Environmental Protection to exempt Maine from some anti-smog regulations. The change would ease the process of industries seeking to develop or expand in Maine by removing a requirement that they buy expensive […]
Posted inMaine
Federal EPA supports Maine’s bid to change air pollution regulation
LEWISTON — A proposal by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection seeking to exempt industry from a state air-pollution regulation has the support of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. And, despite the concerns being raised by environmental advocates, the change would not mean industries in Maine would be allowed to pollute more, said Dave Conroy, […]