CAT COOL NEWS for February/March 2019 CLIMATE ACTION TEAM COOL NEWS: WORKING TOGETHER LOCALLY TO FIND GLOBAL SOLUTIONS A Publication of Sierra Club Maine |
Andy Burt presents a Building Thriving Communities tote bag to Governor Mills communications director, Scott Ogden. Photo by videographer Charlie Hudson Building Thriving Communities at the Capital’s Hall of Flags As the new administration and 129th Legislature convened in January, the Climate Action Advisory Team (CAAT), Sierra Club Maine Director Alice Elliott, and 14 dedicated volunteers braved a winter storm and travelled to the state capitol to help kick off our Building Thriving Communities educational campaign. Volunteers, wearing Sierra Club “Make America Green Again” hats, greeted legislators and presented them with tote bags of information along with a short film, "Road Trip to Maine’s Future" produced by Andy Burt of downtoearthstories.org. The film documents the resourcefulness of Mainers building thriving communities in the face of climate change. Some 45-50 legislators received the totes in person. The senate and house office staffs delivered the remaining totes—183 in total. _____________________________________________ |
An Eye Toward Legislation Affecting Climate Change: In Washington D.C. and Augusta The Green New Deal Every where you go—from kitchen tables, to the Maine State House, to the halls of Congress, people are talking about the Green New Deal. The Sierra Club’s goal is to support an inclusive process and provide substance for a Green New Deal. That means working with a wide array of partners to find shared policy-change goals, and, in particular, to support the efforts of local frontline groups to identify their Green New Deal priorities. The Sierra Club’s view is that the policies that form a Green New Deal must achieve three essential goals: • Tackling the climate crisis and pollution • Creating good, high-paying jobs • Counteracting racial and economic inequity (From Ben Beachy, Director of the Sierra Club's Living Economy Program) However, the Sierra Club, along with other national environmental groups such as Audubon, NRDC, and Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, are cautious in endorsing the plan. The devil is in the details, and those details need to be explored and debated before totally embracing the proposal. Maine Legislative Bills of Interest Among the long list of progressive bills to overturn the LePage administration's obstructive positions regarding climate change, we are following legislation related to sea level rise, wetland restoration, changing the Renewal Portfolio Standard, net metering, and other solar policy issues. To follow the progress of these bills and to live stream the committee hearings go to: http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_129th/billtexts/ _____________________________________________ |
Brown Bag Lunch Gatherings Shift To Monthly Happy Hours from 5-7PM January's Happy Hour Katrina Bussiere-Venhuizen of ecomaine presented strategies to reduce, reuse, and recycle. She explained ecomaine’s recycling processes and trash disposal at the first Sierra Club Maine happy hour which was filmed and can be seen on Sierra Club Maine’s YouTube portal— available in high definition at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7w1G_5IpdSwF5t_VJm1CA Next Happy Hour— February 21, 5-7 PM Tom Fox, who started Fox Forestry in 1986 while still studying at the University of Maine, will be the happy hour speaker on February 21st from 5-7 at the Chapter conference room at 565 Congress St. in Portland. Tom, who is dedicated to revolutionizing the forest management industry, will speak on the genetics of trees, the state of forests now, and what the future may bring in light of climate change. Light refreshments will be served. _____________________________________________ |
Portland CAT members celebrate the opening of Portland’s solarized landfill: left to right are: Espahbad Dodd, Maggy Wolf, Elissa Armstrong, Luke Truman, Tica Douglas, Allen Armstrong. CAT Happenings Around The State Portland In December, Central Maine Power turned on the switch for the solar array on Portland's Ocean Avenue closed landfill. “Seems like it took three and a half years, but the idea we planted when we asked ReVision Energy to look at the site, and then brought it to the city manager, finally turned into reality on December 18, 2018," one PCAT member explained. Congratulations to all PCAT members for their perseverance. Now PCAT moves on to Solar for Schools. Six Portland schools—Casco Bay High School/PATHS; King Middle School; Riverton Elementary School; East End Community School; Ocean Ave Elementary School; and Lyseth Elementary School appear to have roofs in condition to provide almost two megawatts of DC from solar. That's about twice the size of the Portland landfill array. A description of the project has been provided to Mayor Strimling, who included it in his state of the city speech on January 14. There will be funding gaps that PCAT and others can work to help fill. Cumberland The Town of Cumberland owns roughly 1000 acres of forest in several large parcels. Its forest committee recently adopted guiding principles for managing these parcels—those principles include sequestration of carbon. Cumberland CAT leader, Dennis Gallaudet, participated in a recent forum discussing the forest management plan for Cumberland. Gorham, Buxton/ Westbrook Regional Following a successful WindowDressers project the group enjoyed a break during the holidays and is now contemplating what comes next. Phippsburg Phippsburg leader, Nancy Chandler reports on an informative workshop on Heat Pumps organized by E2 Tech and presented by Efficiency Maine Director Michael Stoddard and three installers from different regions of Maine. An average home heat pump costs about $3500 to $4000 and will heat one large living area. Separate rooms not adjacent to the main living area can be heated either with electric units or with another heat pump. Several thousand Mainers received rebates last year from Efficiency Maine—$750 for one pump or a maximum of $1500 for two or more. Some dealers are now getting the rebates directly, saving homeowners the upfront cost. Maintenance for pumps is minimal annual cleaning, much less costly than maintaining a furnace that uses fossil fuels. New houses are being built in Maine using only heat pumps and passive solar design for heat. And heat pumps can work well with a furnace to provide comfort even during very cold periods. Go to https://www.efficiencymaine.com for a list of local heat pump dealers. Note: Nancy Chandler volunteers at the Gathering Place on Union St., behind Hannaford’s in Brunswick. If you visit you can see the efficiency of the heat pumps first hand. The Gathering Place is open from 8:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and also on Saturday morning. York: Ready for 100 The York group is developing plans to engage and educate the public about Ready for 100. Ready for 100 is a movement of people working to inspire our leaders to embrace a vision of healthier communities powered by 100 percent clean energy. The York group is building their website and social media presence and is actively recruiting new members. A successful recent film showing in York of the Sierra Club’s "Reinventing Power: America’s Renewable Energy Boom" was attended by 80 interested residents. |
Other Climate News: 2018 Was The Fourth Warmest Year On Record According to a report in the Washington Post, a scientific group has pronounced 2018 as likely being the fourth warmest year on record. This past year joins three other extra-hot years since 2015 that suggest an upward warming trend for Earth that may not be reversed in our lifetimes.The warmest year on record for the Earth’s land and oceans was 2016— the warmest by a long shot, thanks to a very strong El Nino event. That’s followed by 2015, 2017, and now 2018, "2018 is consistent with the long term warming trend," notes Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist with Berkeley Earth, which released the findings. "It’s significantly warmer than any of the years before 2015." With 86 Percent Drop, California’s Monarch Butterfly Population Hits Record Low Story at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/science/monarch-butterfly-california.html Study shows that electric cars reduce electricity costs for everyone, whether they drive an electric car or not. Story at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2019/02/01/electric-vehicles-benefit-all-utility-customers-as-much-as-their-owners ______________________________________________ |
The Sierra Club Maine YouTube portal is available in high definition at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7w1G_5IpdSwF5t_VJm1CA O _____________________________________________ TO CHANGE EVERYTHING, IT TAKES EVERYONE! If your CAT is working on a local solution to climate change, please share your story (and a photo or 2) with us so we can share with the wider Climate Action Team community. ____________________________________________ Acting Editor, Joan Saxe joansaxe@gmail.com Sierra Club Maine 565 Congress St. Ste. 208 Portland, ME 04101 207.761.5616 Email: maine.chapter@sierraclub.org Website: Sierraclub.org/maine |
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