Tar Sands in Maine

The Sierra Club Maine and the First Parish Church Environmental Justice team are co-sponsoring a public forum on Thursday, November 29th at 7PM in Fellowship Hall in Pilgrim House of the First Parish Church (on Cleaveland Street, Brunswick).

They will talk about a proposed plan to pump tar sands (diluted bitumen) through a 60 year old pipeline from Canada through Maine's Lakes Region, past Sebago Lake and to Portland Harbor and then shipment on Casco Bay.

The forum will feature a presentation about the realities and risks of shipping tar sands through pipelines, including the economic and environmental impacts to communities on and near the pipeline route from Bethel to South Portland and the impacts on climate change. Presenters include: Glen Brand, Director of the Sierra Club Maine, and Montreal attorney, Shelley Kath, who is a Senior Consultant for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington DC.

Please go and invite friends in the community.

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Here is a regularly updated list of other things Cory writes

October

News from the Common Ground Country Fair and the rich harvest from a good summer brings me spinning back to New England this morning. - It is October there and everything has changed, the chimneys blow smoke into the salt air and the leaves blow past. It is also October here but the place seems hardly to have noticed. - There is no morning chill, no smell of pumpkin pie, no cold hands digging the potatoes from the damp and frosted morning soil. Yet somehow we can all still feel the October-ness on our sunburned skin. - In the swell of the passion fruit and the bounty of the rice harvest. 

Here is Robert Frost's poem October:


O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

To-morrow's wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

To-morrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow,

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know;

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away;

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes' sake, if they were all,

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost--

For the grapes' sake along the wall.

Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance

BAck in March 2011 the town of Sedgwick, Maine passed a Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance, since then six towns in Hancock County have passed the ordinance, Blue Hill is one of those towns. But now a farmer in Blue Hill, who sells fresh milk and other prepared foods is being sued by the Department of Agriculture and State of Maine for working without State licenses - selling without the use of state licenses is part of what the ordinance is all about and why it is catching on all across the country.

Recent rule changes by the Maine Department of Agriculture is set to make criminals out of farmers who are growing and processing food to share in their communities. This lawsuit is a serious threat to Maine's growing local food movement. It is very important that we make a stand on the side of small farmers, local food sovereignty and the Maine Constitution.

People are getting organized to protect the farmer Dan Brown and defend both Gravelwood Farm and the  Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance. On April 17 the We Are All Farmer Brown Campaign will deliver a petition in Augusta, signed by thousands of people to Gov. Paul LePage asking him to drop the lawsuit against Dan Brown and Gravelwood Farm.

Sign here: http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-lepage-drop-the-lawsuit-against-farmer-dan-brown

A Dissapointed Mainer

Somehow the Maine Senate seems to have lost it's mind. York County Republican Senator Courtney introduced a Joint Resolution Memorializing the President and the Congress of the United States to Support the Completion of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The resolution suggested a number of falsehoods including that the pipeline would create a substantial number of jobs - certainly we would not get any jobs in Maine with from this pipeline.

Along with nearly 2,000 other Mainers, I signed a petition last week asking the the senate to oppose the resolution. Sadly, somehow, the vote was passed 17-15.

Tar sands oil and its acquisition, production, transportation, and usage is one of the dirtiest fossil fuels on the planet. I had a feeling that Maine was ready to move forward in support of environmentally-supportive energy choices.

Amid my disappointment, I am left asking myself what the legislature is even doing wasting time on this issue. With only a few weeks left in this session Maine legislators should be focused on improving Maine's economy and environment.

The only thing left to do is to contact the Senators who supported this Resolution and contact Representatives to make sure they know our minds on this issue and keep working at home.