Severe storms that brought flooding, power outages and damage to homes and infrastructure throughout the state in 2023 reflected scientists’ warnings that such events will become more common in the future.
At the same time, the state broke heat records this summer and is headed toward what may be its hottest year on record.
Those are among the biggest environment stories this year in Maine, where Gov. Janet Mills accelerated clean energy goals by a decade, now requiring 100 percent of electricity consumed in Maine to be renewable by 2040.
Lawmakers also worked on policies aimed at containing so-called forever chemicals.
And rulings came for two large renewable energy projects, with one allowed to proceed by jurors and the other halted by regulators.
Here are the highlights of those stories.
Big storms, more flooding
Warmer water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine and in the atmosphere are contributing to strong storms of longer duration with more rain and, when conditions are right, higher winds.
That was the case with the Dec. 18 storm that left several hundred thousand Mainers without power.
Warm air holds more water — every degree of added heat holds about 4 percent more water in a specific area — and that means a higher precipitation risk, usually accompanied by strong winds, Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications for nonprofit climate risk assessment firm First Street Foundation in Brooklyn, New York.
“Large storms predicted to occur every 100 years are now expected every 70 to 80 years,” he said, citing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration models.
In Bangor a large storm that was predicted to occur every 100 years in the 1980s now is expected every 74 years, he said.
Trending toward hottest year on record
Maine and the planet as a whole may be headed for its hottest year on record, experts said, with Portland and other areas having broken records throughout the summer.
In July, Maine’s largest city struggled to cope with a stretch of hot, muggy weather. By July 24, the city had seen 26 straight days with lows above 60 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous record of 24 days set in August 1988, according to the National Weather Service, which has tracked the temperatures since 1940.
The extreme heat sent Mainers to the emergency room. Visits to ERs, per 100,000 population, were higher in Maine that day than in most of the rest of the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Heat & Health Tracker. As the climate and oceans warm, more heat days and hospital visits are a growing trend across the country, even in cooler states like Maine. Particularly at risk are elderly and homeless people along with those who have underlying health conditions.
Alternative energy program acceleration
Gov. Mills stepped up goals for renewable energy in February and continued to hone specific programs throughout the year. In July, she raised the goal for heat pump installations to 175,000 units installed by 2027, with the state having achieved its earlier goal of 100,000 units two years ahead of time.
Another key aspect of her renewable energy goals, electric vehicles, also jumped forward this year, with the state promising at least 12 more electric vehicle charging stations to spur vehicle purchases.
Some consumers have hesitated to buy electric cars or trucks fearing the lack of charging stations and ones that work. On June 1, the EVgo electric chargers in southern Maine were not working in the morning, some of hundreds experiencing similar outages across the United States.
Such outages can hamper consumer purchases, Adam Lee, chairman of Lee Auto Malls, who has owned multiple electric vehicles in the past decade, said at the time.
“People can accept an occasional major outage, but it’s the constant minor things where they have to reset it or you have to go to another charging station seven miles away,” Lee said.
More money toward new chargers is coming from a side agreement to the controversial hydropower corridor through western Maine, where development partner Hydro-Quebec is contributing $10 million toward more electric vehicle charging stations across the state.
Legislature takes on PFAS disclosures
Maine led the nation in launching a law requiring manufacturers to disclose PFAS — perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as “forever chemicals” — in products sold in the state, but the January implementation has been pushed back two years as environmental regulators remain understaffed and work to clarify reporting rules.
The Legislature and governor passed a law in June that extended the Jan. 1 deadline requiring manufacturers of products sold in Maine containing PFAS to report them. Now they have until January 2025.
The Legislature’s bill also created two reporting exemptions. One is for businesses employing 25 or fewer people, and another is for a used product or component.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection also has suspended rulemaking for how and what manufacturers report about their use of PFAS in products sold in Maine.
Large energy projects
A jury that heard complicated testimony about construction schedules and constitutional rights delivered a victory in April for a $1 billion-plus hydropower transmission project, known as the New England Clean Energy Connect. It found that developers had a constitutional right to proceed despite being rebuked by state voters in a referendum.
The project won all regulatory approvals, but it was met with pushback by environmentalists and some state residents each step of the way. When state residents voted against it in a referendum, work was halted. The jury’s verdict allowed it to restart.
Another hurdle emerged months later, when developers asked the state of Massachusetts, which is fully funding the project, to approve more money for the project, because the court delay jacked up the price by as much as $500 million. Massachusetts lawmakers recently approved language that would allow the contracts to be amended to include the higher costs.
The project has been touted by developers as being able to supply up to 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to the New England power grid, enough to help combat climate change and power about 1 million homes.
A separate project in northern Maine for a wind array and 160-mile transmission line that would bring wind power through Aroostook County and onto the New England grid suffered a different fate. Though approved by the Maine Legislature, the Maine Public Utilities Commission recently killed the developer’s proposed project because of price uncertainties. The commission will ask for new bids for the project. The project also saw pushback from local residents.
LS Power planned to build a transmission line from southern Aroostook County to a new substation near Windsor. It would connect the New England grid to the 170-plus-turbine King Pine Wind project from Boston-based Longroad Energy. It would have become the largest on-shore wind farm east of the Mississippi River and produce enough power for about 450,000 homes.
The dispute over pricing could delay the project for months. It also could have implications for Maine’s energy future, as a supporter of the project recently told the commission that the wind power would cost between 5 and 6 cents per kilowatt hour — or half the price of the current standard rate.
Lori Valigra is an investigative environment reporter for the BDN’s Maine Focus team. She may be reached at [email protected]. Support for this reporting is provided by the Unity Foundation and donations by BDN readers.
