Third Act: Older People Seek Climate Action
On the first morning of spring, with temperatures hovering around freezing, a large flock of retirees descended like robins on a former farm field in Belfast, the site of a sprawling Bank of America...
Category: Economics
The Price of PFAS
Maine’s strong policy response could mitigate future expenses, but short-term expenditures are proliferating and many costs remain untallied. Widespread contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “has the potential to impose an unsustainable burden...
The Long Road to Recovering PFAS Damages
With Maine facing escalating costs from contamination due to ‘forever chemicals,’ work is under way to recoup some losses. Shortly after hearing from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection that their well should be...
The Bumpy Road to Better Electric Utility Decisions
Maine’s transition to clean energy hinges on a wholesale transformation of the electrical grid. Several laws passed in recent years may improve grid planning, but legislating institutional change in the utility field could prove...
Dodging Disaster
Weather disasters inflicted $145 billion in damages in the U.S. last year. The Northeast escaped largely unscathed, but that could change at any moment. More than 40 percent of Americans live in counties hit...
Hiding in Plain Sight: Another Plastics Problem
The plastic industry could soon surpass coal in greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, its growing climate impact is largely unnoticed. Plastic is ubiquitous, filling stores, overtopping landfills and littering shorelines. It’s even within us,...
A Plug for Electric Vehicles
Our family got an electric car two years ago and I have one major regret: I wish our previous cars could have been electric. Recalling years spent contending with the expense, pollution, noise, mechanical...
Are Maine’s Electric Utilities Prepared for Climate Disruptions?
In the wake of Ida, a hurricane intensified by the warming climate, more than a million electric consumers in Louisiana and hundreds of thousands more households across the eastern U.S. lost power. It was...
