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A Superior Court judge ruling’s Wednesday may have created another hurdle for the builders of a 145-mile energy transmission corridor through northwestern Maine.

Justice Michaela Murphy ruled that the Maine Bureau of Public Lands did not have the authority to lease public reserve lands to CMP affiliate NECEC Transmission LLC, which is building the corridor, without first determining whether the lease would substantially alter the land in question. If a review finds the state-owned land would be significantly altered because of the lease, the question would go to the Legislature, Murphy ruled.

Source:  Portland Press Herald

The Portland City Council voted unanimously Monday to grant a zoning change for a downtown high rise that would become the tallest building in the state – a title that currently belongs to Franklin Towers.

Redfern Properties wants to erect an 18-story building at Temple and Federal streets, behind the post office. Monday’s vote allows the developer to build housing on the upper floors of the 190-foot structure, which previous zoning would have prohibited.

City Councilor Belinda Ray, who represents the district, said she supported the change after the developer agreed to work with the owner of the Portland House of Music to design a building that would muffle noise coming from the entertainment venue across the street.

“I’m comfortable supporting this,” Ray said. “It’s going to give us much needed housing.”

 

Source: Portland Press Herald

CLIFF ISLAND, Maine — In different times, a taxi met visitors at the wharf to take them to any destination on this H-shaped island’s dirt roads.

Few visitors come now. But the taxi is still parked up the road with its back window emblazoned with a simple message in bold yellow lettering: “Sorry! No Taxi Service Due to COVID-19.”

It is one of the most immediately visible ways that life has changed on the island in Casco Bay that is part of Maine’s largest city, but is a remote last stop on the ferry from the mainland. Cliff Island has yet to see a confirmed case of the coronavirus in nearly a year since the pandemic arrived in Maine, infecting more than 45,000 statewide and more than 3,700 in Portland.

 

Source: BDN 

A Norwegian-owned aquaculture venture says it has filed plans with the state in hopes of getting permits it will need to cultivate salmon in the ocean off Bar Harbor.

It also will need to overcome organized opposition to its plans in order to come to fruition.

American Aquafarms plans to place 30 floating pens, each 150 feet wide, for growing salmon at two sites in Frenchman Bay, if it can get approval from the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The firm, headed by CEO Mikael Roenes, also has an agreement to purchase the Maine Fair Trade Lobster plant in Gouldsboro if the project is approved, and to convert it into a salmon hatchery and processing plant.

Source: BDN

“I’m coming back to Maine after wintering in Arizona. Can I go grocery shopping and get gas while observing my 14-day quarantine?

The answer, at least legally, appears to be yes, said District Attorney Matt Foster in an email this week.

“It looks pretty clear to me,” said Foster, citing Executive Order 34FY 19/20, issued by Governor Janet Mills on April 3.

https://www.ellsworthamerican.com/maine-news/da-weighs-in-on-quarantine-regulations/

A Canadian company is seeking to rezone nearly 200 acres in northern Maine to open the state’s first new commercial, metallic mine in decades.

Wolfden Mt. Chase LLC says that Pickett Mountain — located just north of Patten — has the country’s largest undeveloped reserves of a type of ore containing high-grade zinc, copper, lead, silver and gold. The company has filed an application with the Land Use Planning Commission to rezone 197.5 acres in order to build an underground mine as well as associated buildings and infrastructure at the site near the border of Penobscot and Aroostook counties.

The application will be the first test of new mining regulations enacted by the Legislature in 2017 following years of heated debate largely focused on this particular site. Wolfden Resources, the parent company of Wolfden Mt. Chase LLC, purchased the nearly 6,900 acres around Pickett Mountain several months later and began conducting test drilling to gauge the quality of the underlying mineral deposits.

Source: Portland Press Herald

Ned Swain traveled from Portland to Washington, D.C., to deliver testimony that he hoped would save his small business.

Swain runs Devenish Wines, a Maine-based wine distribution company that stocks restaurants and wine shops from Portland to Mount Desert Island and Down East. He’s one of many Mainers who have spent decades making a life in Maine’s hospitality, tourism and restaurant industries who fear a new proposal for 100 percent tariffs on European wine, cheese, olives and other agricultural goods that would “devastate” their business.

“There are a lot of people quoting figures saying that a number of warehouse workers, logistics workers and people who work for trucking companies will lose their jobs,” Swain said. “I wanted to show up in Washington and say, ‘Hey, I’m not from Manhattan or San Francisco. I work in a warehouse, and this will shrink my business.’”

The U.S. Trade Representative has proposed dramatic new tariffs on wine, cheese and other agricultural products from the European Union that would essentially double the price of those goods on the shelves — if they made it to the states at all.

Source: Maine Public

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is allocating $1.6 million to help the lobster industry adapt to new and pending gear rules that aim to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

NOAA says the funds will likely be used to aid acquisition of new gear, such as breakaway trap-rope or costly, remote-controlled “ropeless” technology that could reduce the chance the whales will be injured or killed by entanglements.

NOAA spokesperson Jennifer Goebbel says the agency will seek guidance from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council.

Source:  Maine Public

Monkfish may look like horrific sea monsters, but can Mainers look past that enough to place the fish center stage on the dinner table?

The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association hopes so. The nonprofit, in partnership with Luke’s Lobster, plans a series of meals and demonstrations to shine a spotlight on underappreciated fish species that could diversify and strengthen Maine’s fishing industry.

First up in the What’s the Catch? series is monkfish, a species that had its heyday about two decades ago but has since fallen out of popularity. A ticketed event on Jan. 8 at Luke’s Lobster on the Portland waterfront will include tasting monkfish prepared several ways and a fish-cutting demonstration.

Source: Portland Press Herald

Marijuana businesses submitted 40 applications for conditional licenses to operate in Maine on the first day forms were available, state regulators said.

Interest in the application forms spiked when the office put them online Thursday afternoon. The page received 4,000 visits, of which 1,000 were unique views, said Office of Marijuana Policy spokesman David Heidrich.

“It was a little surprising,” he said. “There was a lot of interest in seeing those applications once they were available.”

Maine has a tiered application process for adult-use marijuana businesses. Licensees or employees of those business first have to obtain an individual identification card, which requires fingerprinting and a background check.

After that, applicants can get individual conditional licenses for cultivation, testing and manufacturing facilities and stores. A full yearlong operating license is contingent on municipal government authorization.

Source:Portland Press Herald