Supporters want lawmakers to do something about rotting food waste, which produces dangerous levels of methane gas. But critics of the proposal say a ban would be too costly for the state and businesses.
Penelope Overton
Staff Writer
Penny Overton is excited to be the Portland Press Herald’s first climate reporter. Since joining the paper in 2016, she has written about Maine’s lobster and cannabis industries, covered state politics and spent a fellowship year exploring the impact of climate change on the lobster fishery with the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team. Before moving to Maine, she has covered politics, environment, casino gambling and tribal issues in Florida, Connecticut, and Arizona. Her favorite assignments allow her to introduce readers to unusual people, cultures, or subjects. When off the clock, Penny is usually getting lost in a new book at a local coffeehouse, watching foreign crime shows or planning her family’s next adventure.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
Maine DEP moves to fast-track recovery permits after destructive winter storms
Lawmakers hope to ease some environmental regulations so people can build more durable infrastructure and recover more quickly after January’s storms.
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Posted inLocal & State
Storm-battered Maine communities look to state funding to prepare for warmer, wetter future
Gov. Janet Mills wants to invest $50 million into a fund that is already helping communities across the state prepare for more storms fueled by climate change.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
Staff urges land-use planning board to reject Pickett Mountain mine rezoning
The proposal calls for rezoning 374 acres of land about 20 miles east of Katahdin to create a metallic mineral mine at Pickett Mountain.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State
Businesses seek changes in Maine’s first-in-the-nation PFAS ban
Critics of the ban say it is unworkable and could cost the state major employers if enforced as is.
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
Collins, King optimistic Senate will pass border deal over Trump opposition
Sen. Susan Collins believes the pressure to reach an agreement is going to be greater than the former president’s effort to derail a deal so he can campaign on immigration.
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
Sen. Collins says she won’t endorse Trump – but won’t endorse Haley, either
Collins did not endorse Donald Trump in 2016 and wouldn’t say whether she supported him in 2020, but voted to convict him after his 2021 impeachment trial.
Posted inLocal & State, News
In aftermath of recent storms, communities face a rebuilding conundrum
They want repairs to piers and other infrastructure done quickly, but state officials and others want the repairs to take future storms into account, and that can be a longer process.
Posted inLocal & State
Portland’s peninsula and commercial center vulnerable to floods
At the end of the century, a big storm that blows in hard from the southeast on a new moon tide – like the one that hit us on Jan. 10 – could spell disaster for Portland.
Posted inLocal & State
Interactive map shows Maine’s rising tides
The Maine Geological Survey has created an interactive map that can show the projected impacts of rising sea levels anywhere along the coast.