DEP ruling means the lithium operation would be treated more like a copper or silver mine, rather than a quarry operation for limestone or granite, as the Freemans had hoped.
The Maine island looked into innovative, independent power sources. In the end, residents worried about reliability, cost and unproven technology.
The find, one of the richest on Earth, could test Maine’s 2017 metallic mining laws, considered the strictest in the nation.
An unusual law passed by the Legislature would place the fate of a project backed by the Worcester family in the hands of Columbia Falls, population 476.
Seven companies, five of which are nonprofits with several hundred employees, received 20 percent of the total funds distributed, totaling nearly $19 million.
“Essentially they’re saying, ‘We should be assessed based on a shuttered, empty, gargantuan warehouse.”
“I’m really worried that we’re approaching that time when somebody calls 911 and there’s not an ambulance to respond.”
Crowdfunding hides the cost of rural medical care.
“You basically throw another rock in the soup and put a bunk down somewhere.”
So what would happen if you added all that tax-exempt property to the rolls?
Part Two in a three-part series looking at domestic violence prosecutions in Hancock County. Read Part One and Part Three.
As towns attempt to manage the pandemic’s impact, library funding is often the first to go.
“For a lot of towns right now, recycling is more expensive than incinerating,” Wellman said. “If you’re having to send your recycling an hour or two away in small quantities, then the fuel that you’re using and air pollution and all of that could be greater than the impact or the benefit of recycling that material. Plus, when it gets recycled there are fossil fuels being burned.
A simple form designation may leave families facing thousands in unexpected medical bills.
“It’s become home,” Slinker said. “Having to uproot her and start over — my mom has Alzheimer’s dementia. It’s going to be a big change, transitioning all over again.”
“When I walked in there I could see there were some needles,” McVey said. “There were 20 small propane canisters; there were big bottles of sludgy-looking liquid. The smell in there was unbelievable.”
But I remember the ten hour bus ride to Nairobi: opening the windows even an inch invited a thick coating of red dust on everything, so we kept them closed, sweat soaking between shoulder blades and pooling under thighs. Two seats in the back were inexplicably missing, literally ripped from their posts; I assumed they’d been bounced out at some point on the roads, which washed away each year in the spring rains.
“We’re not at the end of the Rockwell wave,” Kerr added. “We’re at the beginning.”
A conservative church comes together to save a local family from deportation. “Unity doesn’t mean uniformity—it doesn’t mean we all look the same or even believe the same politically. Where else is someone who voted for Donald Trump going to go to a [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] office and hold a sign advocating for illegal immigrants? That only happens in the church.
“You get up, you feed your kids breakfast, you go to work, you come home, you eat dinner, you’re exhausted. You don’t have time to be researching ‘How can I make my home more efficient? How can I afford solar panels? How can I afford an electric vehicle?’ For someone to come in and offer the opportunity to implement solutions and a toolkit of sorts, people are psyched.”
Webber Energy wants to demolish the old firehouse. These women aren’t about to let that happen.
In rural communities, complex medical care can be hours away. Helicopter companies pick up the slack, but at what cost?
“I could see more solar, more small wind generation, a whole lot more electric vehicles, a lot more people walking and biking, and you know, a town that knows it’s going to survive into the next century based on the actions it took when it understood its vulnerabilities.”
“We can’t deny that this is a problem. The denial part is the stuff that caused this problem in the first place.”
“Weddings touch so many different vendors. The makeup, the hair, the photographs, the photography booth, the venue, the florist, the wedding planners; it’s such a broad group of people that are affected at one time. The DJ, the band, the rental companies — there’s really such a trickle effect.”
“A lot of...us on the outskirts of Rumford in the Ellis River valley where this is happening, feel like our land and water are about to get raped.”