Maine Governor Nominates Cabinet-Level Positions, Commissioner of Maine Department of Education and Commissioner of Department of Environmental Protection.

12/22/2015 02:35 PM EST

Earlier today, Governor LePage notified the chair of the Maine State Board of Education, Martha Harris, of his decision to nominate Dr. William Beardsley to be Commissioner of the Maine Department of Education (DOE), pending that 10-member board's evaluation of the candidate. Dr. Beardsley serves currently as Acting Commissioner and has previously served as Commissioner for the Maine Department of Conservation.

While most gubernatorial commissioner appointments go directly to the legislative committee of jurisdiction, Maine statute requires the State Board of Education, which Dr. Beardsley served on until October 2015, have an opportunity to meet and interview the Governor's nomination for Education Commissioner.

 Beardsley served as President and CEO of Husson University for 22 years and also served on and has chaired numerous boards, including the Maine Development Foundation, Finance Authority of Maine, Maine Higher Education Council, Maine Independent College Association and Maine Development Foundation. Most recently, he served on the Maine State Board of Education and on the Maine Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Council.

Beardsley earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Earlham College in Indiana and his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. He completed the Harvard Institute for Educational Management Program.

Governor LePage also nominated Paul Mercer as the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Mercer has worked at Maine Maritime Academy since 2006 and has held positions as Associate Professor and Department Chair within the Engineering Department. At the Academy, he has also served as a member of the senior leadership team as the Assistant to the President for Sustainability, where he led the recent Strategic Planning process, among other efforts. Mercer has used this role to promote innovation and environmental initiatives at the Academy.

 Mercer has an extensive background in environmental issues. He has worked with renewable energy development, solid fuels and biomass energy systems throughout the United States and Canada. This included acting as the lead developer of an energy project resulting in a 50 percent reduction of emissions at the Bucksport paper mill.

Additionally, Mercer was president of Northeast Engineering in Bucksport from 1983 until 2008. The company provided a full range of consulting services to the power generation field, as well as project development of waste wood, biofuels, de-inking and wood products facilities. He also served as president of Bay Engineering from 1978 until 1982.

Mercer earned a bachelor's degree in Marine Engineering from Maine Maritime Academy.

Maine DEP looks to amend Chapter 415: Reasonable Costs for Handling and Recycling of Electronic Wastes

 

11/12/2015 09:37 AM EST

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is proposing to amend Chapter 415, regarding the handling and recycling of Electronic Waste within the state.
 

The proposed changes and goals are outlined as follows..........

1. Make the Department's rule consistent with Maine's Electronic Waste Law, 38 M.R.S. § 1610, which has been amended since the last time the Department undertook rulemaking (e.g., the term "covered entity" is defined and integrated into the rule);

2. Update and clarify certain definitions, clarify various terms and expectations (codifying the Department's implementation of the Chapter), and remove unnecessary language; 3. Reorganize and clarify various sections of the rule;

4. Update and provide television and game console manufacturers with the opportunity to receive credits for implementing their own independent electronics recycling programs in Maine;

5. Ensure the Department may request records and reports from consolidators- anytime not only when there is a "significant change"-to determine compliance with Maine's Electronic Waste Law and Chapter 415; and

6. Clarify that the Department may request records identifying all downstream handlers of electronics, electronic components, and hazardous waste and also to request shipping records of those materials.

Maine joins coalition of 25 states, cities and counties in defense of EPA Clean Power Plan

 

 

 

11/04/2015 02:24 PM EST

(AUGUSTA) Attorney General Janet T. Mills announced today Maine is joining a coalition of 25 states, cities and counties filing a motion to intervene to defend the federal Environmental Protection Agency's "Clean Power Plan" against legal challenge. The coalition's motion to intervene in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit responds to suits that several states and industry groups have filed challenging the rule. The Clean Power Plan rule requires fossil-fueled power plants, the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the nation, to cut their emissions pursuant to the Clean Air Act.

"Maine people in particular bear the burden of dirty power plants to the west," said Attorney General Mills. "Fossil fuel burning power plants beyond Maine's borders contribute not only to poor air quality locally, but they can also be blamed for fish consumption warnings due to mercury emitted from their smokestacks. The EPA needs to take steps to protect the health of Maine people and our environment by adopting the Clean Power Plan."

The EPA adopted the Clean Power Plan through a multi-year stakeholder process that drew heavily on the experience of states and utilities in reducing power plant greenhouse gas emissions.

The finalization of the Clean Power Plan marks the culmination of a decade-long effort by states and cities to require mandatory cuts in the emissions of climate change pollution from fossil fuel burning power plants under the Clean Air Act. The Clean Power Plan, along with the companion rule on new, modified, and reconstructed power plants, will control these emissions by setting limits on the amount of climate change pollution that power plants can emit. The rule for existing plants is expected to eliminate as much climate change pollution as is emitted by more than 160 million cars a year - or 70% of the nation's passenger cars.

The Attorneys General of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, the District of Columbia, the City of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boulder, South Miami and Broward County (FL) have all joined the coalition.

Maine Challenges EPA's Double Standard for Maine's Water Quality Protections

 

 

10/09/2015 09:53 AM EDT

(AUGUSTA) For over ten years, under governors of different political persuasions, the federal Environmental Protection Agency refused without reason to fully approve Maine's historically high water quality standards. Today Maine amended its pending federal lawsuit against EPA, transforming it from one forcing EPA to act on Maine's standards to one challenging EPA's unlawful actions in response to Maine's lawsuit. EPA has violated state and federal law by creating a double standard with respect to Maine's water quality protections, which are unquestionably some of the highest standards in the country.

Under its new double standard, EPA asserts that Maine's water quality protections, when applied to unspecified tribal waters, must be based on factors such as fish consumption rates and risk levels that are different from those already approved by EPA that are used for the entire state. This differential treatment violates both the comprehensive 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Acts and the Clean Water Act. Under the Settlement Acts, all Mainers and Maine waters are treated the same for environmental purposes. Maine's stringent water standards uniformly protect all Maine citizens, including members of Maine's tribes.

The same principle applies to the ownership of the Penobscot River, which is the subject of separate pending federal court litigation and which will be argued in federal court next week. Under the Settlement Acts, access to the Penobscot River and Maine's high water quality standards are for the benefit of all Mainers. The two federal actions reflect attempts to revisit the 1980 Settlement Acts, which earned the tribes federal recognition and a stream of revenue to the tune of millions of dollars each year for health care, law enforcement, education and government administration, among other things. With more than eighty million dollars (app. $230 million in today's dollars) in proceeds from the settlement, Maine's tribes acquired approximately 300,000 beautiful and productive acres throughout the state. In exchange, among other things, the tribes agreed to uniform state natural resources jurisdiction over all land and waters in the state, something the Congress, the legislature, the tribes and EPA all recognized as reasonable and as critical to the settlement.

EPA's recent actions, rather than help the current situation with the tribes, unfortunately has created divisions. In the river litigation, the State discovered that as far back as 1999, EPA has been carrying on secret correspondence with tribal leaders and has gone so far as to sign a written "confidentiality agreement," promising to use EPA's "best efforts to protect all such communications, including those that predate this agreement that are requested under the Freedom of Information Act."

These secret negotiations and EPA's new double standard fly in the face of a major 2007 decision by the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the state's right to apply the environmental protections inspired by Senator Edmund S. Muskie and Senator George Mitchell, regardless of the ownership of a specific property or the shores of a specific waterway. That decision, State v. Johnson, upheld one of the most important principles of the comprehensive 1980 Indian Claims Settlement -- the right and responsibility of State government to regulate the environmental quality of Maine's lakes, streams, rivers and lands. The federal government did not appeal that decision to the United States Supreme Court, so it remains the law of the land.

After the Johnson decision, EPA, without giving any reason, simply refused to approve Maine's water standards for unspecified tribal areas, despite repeated requests from the State to do so dating back to the tenure of DEP Commissioner Littell. EPA has also not answered basic questions about what standards apply in tribal areas, and has even suggested that there are no water quality standards at all for those waters. To the state, this aspect of EPA's new double standard represents a grave environmental concern. It would shock Mitchell and Muskie, and it should shock all Mainers, to learn that EPA thinks there are no standards in place to protect these waters.

Maine Department of Environmental Protection Warns of Climbing Ground Level Ozone Concentrations for Monday and Tuesday.

(AUGUSTA) -- Ground-level ozone concentrations will be climbing in Maine on Monday, August 17, 2015 and are expected to reach unhealthy levels according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). This air quality event is occurring due to air emissions being transported from States located to our southeast. Unhealthy levels of ozone are expected to continue for Tuesday and possibly into Wednesday.

• On Monday the unhealthy levels of ozone will be confined to the Southwest Coastal Region of Maine with Moderate levels of ozone expected for the Western Interior, Mid-Coast, High Elevations of Acadia NP and the Downeast Coast. 
• Early indications for Tuesday are that ozone levels would be unhealthy for the Southwest Coast, Mid-Coast and the High Elevations of Acadia NP with Moderate levels of ozone in the Western Interior, Eastern Interior and the Downeast Coast. 
• Meanwhile, Particle pollution levels will reach the moderate range for the southwest corner of Maine on Monday and likely extend statewide on Tuesday. 
• Please check DEP’s Air Quality Forecast page http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/ozone/ for Wednesday’s updated forecast after 3 PM Tuesday.

At elevated ozone levels, children, healthy adults who exert themselves, and individuals suffering from a respiratory disease such as asthma, bronchitis or COPD can experience reduced lung function and irritation. When this happens, individuals may notice a shortness of breath, coughing, throat irritation, and/or experience an uncomfortable sensation in their chest.
Some actions you can take to protect your health during periods of unhealthy air quality include:

• Adjusting your schedule to avoid strenuous outdoor activity during the afternoon.
• Please consult the Maine CDC website for information on the health impacts of extreme heat and appropriate actions to take: http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/environmental-health/heat/.
• The Maine CDC Asthma Prevention and Control Program has asthma information available at their web site: http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/population-health/mat/index.htm
• For more information on asthma control visit EPA's Web site www.epa.gov/asthma to find information about asthma triggers and lessons on asthma management.

In addition to those in a sensitive group, sports coaches, elder care workers, nurses and others who are responsible for the welfare of people impacted by poor air quality are urged to use one of the listed tools to follow the Air Quality Forecast:

• Air Quality Forecast page: http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/ozone/ which has links to:
• EnviroFlash, EPA’s email and text alert system, http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/ozone/enviroflash.html 
• Twitter, for sign up information go to: http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/ozone/twitter.html 
• EPA’s mobile app is available at: http://m.epa.gov/apps/airnow.html 
• DEP's toll free air quality hotline is 1-800-223-1196

For more information call the contacts listed above, visit DEP’s air quality web site http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/ozone/ or contact Andrew Johnson, Division of Air Quality Assessment, Maine DEP at (207) 287-7047 or via email at andy.johnson@maine.gov.