Efforts to reduce fossil fuel use are mostly on track, although the shift to electric vehicles has been slower than hoped.
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 inLocal & State
New England’s wetter, warmer future is already here
The fifth National Climate Assessment includes data showing the region is seeing extreme heat on land and at sea, especially in the Gulf of Maine, and more frequent heavy rainstorms than any other region of the country.
advertisement
Posted inHealth, Local & State, Nation & World, News
Lewiston joins growing list of U.S. communities living with gun trauma
Experts acknowledge that every mass shooting is different but say the Maine city is likely to feel lingering effects of anguish for years.
Posted inLocal & State, News
31,000 acres of ancestral land could be returned to Penobscot Nation
The prospective deal would increase tribal trust holdings by a third and secure public access to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument from the south.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
Maine regulators signal support for new clean car rules
The Board of Environmental Protection narrowly supports proposed electric car standards, but balks at similar rules for trucks. A final vote won’t be taken until after board staff responds to more than a thousand public comments about the proposed rule.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
Maine farmers join in plea for federal help at national PFAS conference
Fred Stone, of Arundel, and 3 other Maine farmers address a gathering in Michigan focusing on forever chemicals in agriculture.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
Right whale population levels off after steep decline, but threats remain
A new estimate of the number of surviving North Atlantic right whales indicates that the population has hovered around 350 animals for 3 years.
Posted inLocal & State
A warming Gulf Stream is edging ever closer to shore
The shifting current may cause breakaway areas of warm water that raise temperatures in the Gulf of Maine for months at a time, a study finds.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
Canadian company makes 2nd bid for zinc mine near Katahdin
Wolfden Chase Mtn. LLC says that Pickett Mountain has the country’s largest undeveloped reserves of a type of ore that contains high-grade zinc and smaller but still commercially valuable amounts of copper, lead, silver and gold.
Posted inLocal & State, News
As Maine warms, scientists search for tree species that will keep its forests growing
Some are experimenting with assisted forest migration, relocating trees from more southerly habitats that might do well in Maine as temperatures rise and drive out native species.