Inside Climate News - When reports emerged last August that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) planned to cancel $7 billion in grants for solar panels for low-income households, including an estimated 20,000 households in Maine, Sen. Susan Collins seemed to defend the move.
“It is no surprise, now that control of the White House has changed, that the new administration would consider terminating this IRA program,” she was quoted as saying, referring to the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
While Collins did call the termination “abrupt” and “unfortunate,” her primary concern seemed to be rehashing the IRA’s partisan passage. “Not one Republican voted for the Inflation Reduction Act that included this grant program,” Collins said, highlighting her own opposition to the 2022 law many have called the most significant piece of climate legislation in United States history.
Collins, who recently announced she would run this year for a sixth term in the Senate, has largely stood by during the Trump administration’s all-out assault on federal climate and clean energy policy. At key moments—as when the Department of Energy released a so-called “critical review” of climate science by five hand-picked climate skeptics—Collins did not speak out, at least publicly, in opposition.
Maine Morning Star - More than 600 Bath Iron Works employees are on strike this week, after the Bath Marine Draftsmen’s Association rejected the company’s latest offer. Union membership voted Sunday to reject General Dynamics-Bath Iron Works’ proposal, and a statement from the union said the offer doesn’t address low pay, affordable insurance and retirement income security.
Press Herald - Portland’s director of housing and economic development was issued a summons for assault and placed on paid leave last week, officials said. Gregory Watson, 54, was accused of assault after a Feb. 20 incident on Congress Street, Portland police confirmed Tuesday. They issued a summons on March 18, as first reported by WGME. Police department spokesperson Brad Nadeau declined to share further details about the alleged assault. No filings about the case were available at the Cumberland County Courthouse as of Tuesday.