Maine company wants to turn cow poo into gas to heat homes
CLINTON, Maine (AP) — A natural gas distribution company in Maine plans to get into the production side of things with a poop-to-gas renewable energy project to heat homes.
Summit Utilities is partnering with Maine’s dairy industry through construction of an anaerobic digester in Clinton to produce natural gas. Farms will provide the manure.
Kurt Adams, president and CEO, said Thursday that the company plans to spend about $20 million on the renewable natural gas project. He said it’s part of Summit’s ongoing effort to invest in “innovative technologies that mitigate climate change.”
Dan Burgess, director of the governor’s energy office, said it’s encouraging to see a new technology that both can reduce waste and heat homes.
Maine governor to hold summit on the opioid epidemic
AUGUSTA (AP) — Maine Gov. Janet Mills is convening a summit in the capital city to address the opioid crisis this summer.
The July 19 event at the Augusta Civic Center aims to bring together health care providers, medical experts, law enforcement officials and affected individuals and families.
Addresses will be delivered by Michael Botticelli, director of drug control policy for former President Barack Obama, and Sam Quinones, author of the book about the nation’s opioid epidemic, “Dreamland.”
Mills said the state is expanding treatment, education and prevention, and supporting law enforcement. But she said “much more” must be done “to stem the tide of this deadly epidemic.”
A report last month found that drug overdose deaths in Maine dropped 15% last year, but still account for about one death each day.
Ex-priest who spent years in MA jail faces Maine sentencing
ALFRED (AP) — A defrocked Massachusetts priest is scheduled for sentencing in a Maine courtroom following his conviction for sexually abusing an altar boy years ago.
Ronald Paquin’s set for sentencing on Friday afternoon in York County Superior Court in Alfred, Maine. Paquin spent more than 10 years in a prison in Massachusetts for sexually abusing another altar boy in that state. He was released in 2015 and then taken into custody in Maine.
Two men testified in the Maine case that they were altar boys when Paquin invited them on trips in the 1980s and repeatedly assaulted them. Paquin was convicted on 11 gross sexual misconduct charges.
Paquin had been slated for sentencing more than two months ago. It was delayed after his attorney filed a motion for a mental health evaluation.
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