Category: Climate Change
A Toolkit for Evaluating Climate Change Impacts to Chapter 21E Sites Under the Amendments to the Massachusetts Contingency Plan
On September 1, 2023, MassDEP issued final amendments to the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (“MCP”), the regulations governing the cleanup of releases of hazardous material and oil spills at contaminated properties. The MCP amendments, which will take effect on March 1, 2024, will now require the consideration of foreseeable climate...
Montana Court Upholds Constitutional Right to Safe Climate
Last week, in Held v. State of Montana , the First Judicial District Court of Lewis and Clark County issued a groundbreaking decision in favor of sixteen youth plaintiffs who challenged a Montana environmental review law that prohibited state agencies from considering greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts during...
Federal and State Funds to Support Maine Climate Action Plan’s Transportation and Broadband Goals
Last week, the Maine Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) and Office of Policy Innovation and the Future jointly presented to the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities, and Technology (EUT) Committee a report outlining a four-year funding plan for Maine’s climate action plan. As required by 38 M.R.S. § 576‑A, Maine’s climate action...
Task Force Releases Report on Modernizing Maine’s Electric Grid

On April 14, 2020, the Nature Conservancy and The Great Plans Institute announced the final report of the Maine Utility Regulatory Reform and Decarbonization Initiative (MURRDI) which outlines a series of steps Maine can take to modernize its electric grid in order to achieve the state’s climate action goals...
New Misguided Opponent of Renewables: Famous Novelist Jonathan Franzen

In a lapse of fact checking and logic, the normally rigorous New Yorker magazine published a lengthy essay by noted novelist and bird watcher Jonathan Franzen that, among other things, called wind and solar power "blights on the landscape" that should be abandoned in favor of bird sanctuaries because...
“Arctic Caucus” called for by Sens. King and Murkowski
On Thursday of last week, the first-ever hearing dedicated to the Arctic region as a whole was held in the U.S. Senate. The hearing signaled the launch of the “Arctic Caucus” (Caucus), a body assembled by Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to explore issues facing the...
High Water Everywhere: Northeast Waters Warmin’ and A Risin’
Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Arizona recently released findings from tidal data collected over a two year period (2009-2010). The central conclusion of the data is this: New England sea levels are rising more rapidly than anticipated. Although the study most...