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Promoting Wind Power Development

NRCM Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim is a member of the Governor’s Wind Power Task Force, which is expected to produce a final report and recommendations is early February. The Task Force was created to come up with a plan for making Maine a leader in wind power development while protecting what is special about Maine and ensuring that Maine people benefit from an expanding base of wind farms in the state. The Task Force recommendations will be turned into legislation and could form the basis for a long-term strategy for reducing Maine’s dependence on fossil fuels through increased wind power.

Curbing Sprawl Through Historic Building Redevelopment

Shopping centers, “big box” stores, and commercial development keep spreading out across the Maine landscape, even as beautiful downtown buildings lay vacant. An important approach to helping curb sprawl is to encourage the reuse of historic buildings as an alternative to “greenfield” construction. A federal tax credit program has been successful in helping spur the redevelopment of vacant or underutilized mills, warehouses, public buildings, and other old structures. But those funds have been significantly reduced. Legislation introduced last year, and carried over to this session (LD 262), would create a tax credit for redevelopment of Maine’s historic buildings to help revitalize our downtowns.

Steps Toward a Coherent Energy Policy

In the face of high energy costs, lawmakers have introduced many different pieces of legislation with a broad range of proposals that would boost renewable energy, increase energy efficiency, curb energy costs, provide funding for home energy audits, and more. The Governor is expected to introduce his own energy bill, which may include recommendations from the Wind Power Task Force but likely would include several other provisions as well. NRCM will closely track all of these bills and will seek enactment of those that contribute to reduced impacts of energy use on our environment, economy, and human health.

Putting the Brakes on Idling Vehicles

Thirteen states have enacted laws that penalize drivers who leave their vehicle engines running while they are parked. A bill has been introduced to add Maine to that list. NRCM will testify in support of the legislation. The proposed approach for Maine is aimed at non-passenger vehicles and would limit idling to five minutes per hour for diesel-powered commercial trucks and some vehicles that run gasoline. We have all experienced the exhaust fumes of trucks idling at gas stations, in parking lots, and on street corners. This bill would help put an end to that unnecessary source of air pollution and wasted fuel.

Regulating Air Pollution from Outdoor Wood Boilers

The Department of Environmental Protection was directed last year to develop regulations for outdoor wood boilers, which have become a source of heat for some homeowners, and a source of air pollution for their neighbors. The rules that were developed will come back to the Legislature for enactment. DEP will require that new wood boilers sold after 2008 meet emission standards and are installed with proper setback and stack height requirements, but the rules do little to address pollution from existing units. We will advocate that DEP be required to draft additional rules to update, set proper setbacks for, or remove existing units that don’t comply with standards necessary to protect public health.