Included in this edition:
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News from Augusta: Legislative Updates, Actions & More
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Maine Gun Safety Legislative Priorities and Actions
The Maine Gun Safety Coalition, and its more than 60 supporting organizations, including PSR Maine, have identified four legislative priorities for 2024. Many of these bills have upcoming hearings or advocacy opportunities.
TODAY, Monday March 4, at 5pm is a volunteer testimony training. They will cover the ins and outs of delivering testimony to the Maine Legislature, key messaging to use when talking about the four priorities, and answer questions to help prepare you to give testimony on the priority legislation. Click here to RSVP for the webinar.
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Environmental Priority Coalition Updates
The vote on the Advanced Clean Cars II is scheduled for March 20 at the Board of Environmental Protection meeting in Augusta (location TBD). The expected start time is 9AM. Before the meeting, supporters are planning to gather for a little sign-holding gathering out front. If you are interested in participating, and/or attending the meeting, please email director@psrmaine.org.
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Flavors Hook Kids announced the delivery of 10,000 postcards from Mainers in support of LD 1215 End the Sale of Flavored Tobacco to Maine lawmakers in a press conference on Tuesday, February 13 in the Hall of Flags. PSR Maine Board Members Dr. Syd Sewall and Dr. Lani Graham attended the press conference in support of the bill. Take a moment to read this latest op-ed from Dr. Anne Coats, pediatric pulmonologist and a board member of the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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Pictured left, Dr. Sewall and Dr. Miriam Oduebor, a senior resident at Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency in Augusta. Pictured right, Dr. Graham and Representative Dan Shagoury, District 55 (Central Maine region).
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Thank you to PSR Maine members who have continued to demonstrate support for LD 2007 An Act to Advance Self-determination for Wabanaki Nations. Read the latest news here. They still need your help to advocate through the final step when the bill goes before Gov. Mills.
Please consider these actions with that aim in mind:
If you testified, be sure to share your testimony with your state representative and state senator. Don't know who they are? Find it in the LD 2007 Toolkit. Repurpose your testimony into a letter to the editor or op-ed. Here is an op-ed guide.
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PSR Maine Welcomes New Board Member
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We are excited to welcome back to the PSR Maine Board, Daniel Oppenheim, PhD, MD! Daniel is a clinical Endocrinologist at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. He believes that global climate change is one of the greatest existential threats to human survival, and that human health is being greatly impacted by this process.
He has worked with Physicians for Social Responsibility at the local, state, and national levels to combat climate change and the threat of nuclear war for many years. In 2000, he was one of the co-authors of the first state-specific report on the health impacts of global climate change in Maine, “Death by Degrees”, as well as its update in 2015. He Co-chairs the Public Health Committee of the Maine Medical Association (MMA) and represents both the MMA and the Endocrine Society on the Steering Committee of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.
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NEW PSR Maine Webpage: Building Electrification
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Please take a moment to view our new dedicated webpage for building electrification. Maine is leading the way in electrification of homes especially in terms of the installation of heat pumps, and we are thrilled to include these related topics on our website. We will soon be adding more resources to this page, including an FAQ for heat pumps.
Maine's heat pump success was featured in a Washington Post op-ed recently, "For a glimmer of what’s possible, look, for instance, to Maine — and its push for residents to replace oil and gas furnaces with heat pumps, which run on electricity. The state has already exceeded the goal it set in 2019... It did this through a program that negotiated lower retail prices and that offers generous instant rebates at big-box stores. It also reduced the paperwork barriers for low-income homeowners to qualify for rebates and for contractors to get licensed to install the pumps. The result: Many Mainers have seen reductions in their overall energy bills and in their fossil fuel emissions."
Interested in joining our next Climate Change and Environmental Health Committee Meeting? Sign up here!
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Upcoming Webinar & Film:
Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island
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The Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island film team is collaborating with Beyond Nuclear and Sierra Club to hold the 45th-year-anniversary Three Mile Island commemorative webinar event “Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island, Gender, Environmental Justice, and the Future of Nuclear Power” on the day of the 1979 meltdown: March 28 (2024) at 8:00 pm ET. The registration page will be here in the coming days.
Radioactive drops on Apple + and Prime Video, on March 12th (and will run indefinitely), just prior to the webinar. Speakers include members of the RADIOACTIVE film cast and team, including Director Heidi Hutner. Other speakers include scientist Mary Olson (Gender and Radiation Impact Project), and Navajo guests, Anna Rondon and Krystal Curley. Finally, climate science expert and engineer, Professor Mark Jacobson (Stanford University), will explain the future of nuclear power and clean climate solutions. Cindy Folkers (Beyond Nuclear), an expert on radiation and environmental health, will moderate.
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A Call-to-Action: Fossil Free for Health
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PSR Maine invites you to join us to call on local, state, and national leaders to act now to stop fossil fuel pollution and accelerating climate harms, for the health of today’s communities, our children, and future generations. The Fossil Free for Health policy agenda provides a roadmap to protect and promote health in the face of the interconnected fossil fuel and climate health crises.
PSR National was a part of the Founding Steering Committee for this policy action agenda and PSR Maine has signed on in support. Individuals and groups can sign on here.
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Thank you for your generous support of PSR Maine!
To mail your contribution to us, please send a check to our mailing address:
PSR Maine, 126 Western Ave #1012
Augusta ME 04330
Or point your camera at this QR code and you’ll be taken directly to our secure donor page:
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