WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives
Audio archives of spoken word broadcasts from Community Radio WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill (weru.org)
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Today we’re checking in with Rob Shetterly, the award-winning artist behind the “Americans Who Tell the Truth” portrait series. He has news about an event coming up in Blue Hill—one that’s taking on special significance given a supreme court ruling today on money in politics– and he’ll give us an update on what else he’s been working on since we last checked in with him
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
For 20 years, the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine has sponsored an annual event called the HOPE festival. The festival features speakers, entertainers and exhibits – and an opportunity for people working on a number of different issues to come together and network. We spoke with organizer Ilze Petersons to get some details about this year’s festival, which will be taking place this month, and to learn what goes into putting together an event like this that lasts 2 decades. FMI: www.peacectr.org
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by John Greenman
Alternative energy builders and supporters joined Environment Maine last week in announcing the release of a new report examining the progress Maine has made reducing carbon pollution through state and federal clean energy policies adopted in the past five years.
They say “the report comes as Gov. Paul LePage continues to try to block progress on clean energy, including when he [recently] called for raiding the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. At the federal level, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is slated to soon move forward with the first-ever federal carbon standards for power plants, the largest source of carbon pollution. Right now, EPA limits arsenic, lead, soot, and other pollution from power plants, but not carbon pollution.”
The report, titled “Moving America Forward: State and Federal Leadership Is Producing Results in the Fight Against Global Warming” calls for reducing pollution from power plants, increasing renewable energy production and energy efficiency, improving transportation systems, promoting electric vehicles and taking leadership in international efforts to curb climate change
Gathered on the construction site of a new passive solar home being built in Bangor, here’s what they had to say:
More information about the new report called “Moving America Forward: State and Federal Leadership Is Producing Results in the Fight Against Global Warming” can be found at www.environmentmaine.org
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
With a winter as long and cold as this one has been, many low income Mainers may find themselves facing electric bills they can’t pay, and possibly the disconnection of their electrical service next month. Utility companies in Maine are banned from disconnecting electricity due to nonpayment during the cold months, between November and April 15th. If consumers are unable to agree to a payment plan after April 15th, their electricity may be shut off by the utility company. A bill that aims to address this problem, had a public hearing before the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee in Augusta today. LD1825 “An Act To Assist Electric Utility Ratepayers” would require transmission [utility companies] to implement [payment] programs to assist eligible low-income residential customers who are in arrears on their electricity bills. The program [would also] include measures to help participants reduce their energy consumption, including a free electricity usage assessment and the requirement that transmission and distribution utilities work with the Efficiency Maine Trust to provide complementary energy efficiency programs for program participants. It also has a provision that [utility companies would] recover in rates all costs of the program except [any past due amounts] that [were] forgiven and written off as bad debt.
Today, on this last day of a record-breaking cold winter, we listen in on the debate
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
The Maine Department of Marine Resources held a public hearing in Bucksport last night, as part of their process of the closure of the lobster and crab fisheries near the mouth of the Penobscot River due to elevated mercury levels. The department became aware of the elevated levels after they were given results from independent testing done in association with the Maine People’s Alliance’s decade long legal battle over the clean up of the former Holtrachem site in Orrington. The Department of Marine Fisheries decided to close this specific area rather than issuing an advisory on all Maine lobster.
Last night’s public hearing was facilitated by Kevin Rousseau & Meredith Mendelson of the Dept of Marine Resources, and Dr Andrew Smith, the State Toxicologist with Maine Center for Disease Control. It was required as part of the process of making February’s emergency closure a regular rule, before the emergency rule expires in May. DMR Deputy Commissioner Meredith Mendelson provided some back ground. An informal question and answer session was held, followed by a formal public comment period.
The deadline for comments to the Department of Marine Fisheries regarding the closure of the lobster and crab fisheries near the mouth of the Penobscot River, is Friday, March 28th
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributing Producer: Carolyn Coe
Segment 1:
The Maine House of Representatives voted to pass LD1252 “An Act To Improve Maine’s Economy and Energy Security with Solar and Wind Energy” by a margin of 95 to 47 earlier today. The bill will now be taken up by the Senate. (Audio from the house floor pre-vote)
Segment 2:
In other news from the state house today, cell phone labeling legislation also moved forward after lengthy debate on the house floor. LD1013 “An Act To Create the Children’s Wireless Protection Act” would require more prominent warning labels on cell phones sold in Maine, of the “health effects associated with nonthermal effects of cellular telephone radiation”. Here is some of the house debate on that issue
Segment 3:
WERU’s Carolyn Coe traveled to Washington, DC for the annual AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) conference this month.
-People gathered outside the annual AIPAC conference to demonstrate against AIPAC’s support for continued illegal settlement building and the occupation of Palestine, and to call for diplomacy, not war, with Iran.
-Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, cites evidence that AIPAC’s influence in the US Congress is lessening, a little.
-The situation in Gaza remains extremely difficult. Most attempting to travel to Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians for International Women’s Day were stopped at the Cairo airport and deported.
Segment 4:
In other news, over the weekend, the members of Maine Lobstering Union – Local 207 voted unanimously to oppose the expansion dredging of Searsport Harbor. There has been a great deal of controversy—and even contradictory information—about plans to make the channel there 5 feet deeper. Supporters say the depth needs to be expanded to 40 feet to accommodate larger ships and increase shipping traffic. Opponents have pointed out that Portland harbor is the same depth as Searsport currently, and does a great deal of business, and that there is already a deep water port in Eastport.
Most of the opponents of expansion dredging have voiced support of routine maintenance dredging, but there is concern about the Army Corps of Engineers plan to dump the dredged materials elsewhere in Penobscot Bay. While the ACoE recently stated that the materials are clean, and would not pose a risk to the fisheries in the bay, recent testing of the sediment near the adjacent docks has revealed a long list of heavy metals, carcinogens and endocrine disrupters – many present in levels many times above the reporting levels…
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
The legislature is considering a bill that would allow dairy farmers to sell products on the farm, without jumping through all the regulatory hoops that apply to large scale commercial producers.
LD1786 “An Act to Allow the Sale of Unregulated Farm-produced Dairy Products at the Site of Production” facilitates direct sales of dairy products sold on the same farm on which the product is produced, by exempting those sales from state licensing and inspection requirements, if certain conditions are met. Those conditions include the following: farmers would be required to allow the customers to visually inspect the farm, they would be prohibited from advertising the dairy products, labels would be required that include the name and address of the farm, along with the following statement: “This food has been produced at a facility that is exempt from licensing and inspection by the State of Maine.” If the dairy product is made from unpasteurized milk, the label must also contain the words “not pasteurized.” Farms selling dairy products this way would be exempt from state inspection, except in cases where an outbreak of foodborne illness was being investigated.
The Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry held a public hearing on the bill yesterday. Here’s some of the testimony from that hearing
Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by John Greenman
Dr Philip Caper is one of the founders of Maine AllCare, a non-profit that promotes universal health care. He has been a professor at Dartmouth and UMass Medical schools, served on a US Senate committee on health, and writes a column for the Bangor Daily News. He has also been a guest here on WERU, and a panelist at a health care reform forum we sponsored a few years ago. Last week he spoke at the University of Maine as part of the Marxist and Socialist studies lecture series, taking a look at the larger issues with the US health care system. His talk was titled: “Diagnosing the Underlying Pathology: Dissecting the American Healthcare System”