NATURAL RESOURCES COUNCIL INC
3 Wade Street, Augusta, ME 04330 www.nrcm.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: The Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) works to protect, restore, and conserve Maine's environment, now and for future generations. We harness the power of science, the law, and the voices of more than 25,000 members, supporters, and activists to secure the most effective safeguards for Maine's environment and communities. Our five programs are Climate & Clean Energy; Forests & Wildlife; Healthy Waters; Sustainable Maine; and Washington Watch/Federal Policy.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) is a homegrown organization founded in 1959 by Maine people and local organizations working to protect Maine's Allagash River from a proposed dam. Today, NRCM is the state's leading non-profit environmental group. Our mission is to protect, restore, and conserve Maine's environment, now and for future generations. We use science, outreach, and advocacy to educate and engage our members, supporters, policy makers, businesses, and the public about the most pressing environmental issues facing Maine. Our overarching goal is to inspire people to become better stewards of Maine's natural resources and communities. We focus on five issue areas: 1) Forests & Wildlife; 2) Healthy Waters; 3) Climate and Clean Energy; 4) Sustainable Maine; and, 5) Federal Policy.

Climate & Clean Energy: NRCM seeks to secure a clean energy future where Maine reduces climate pollution by maximizing energy efficiency, homegrown renewable energy, and electric transportation. Civic engagement and public outreach are at the center of our work toward a clean energy economy. NRCM worked closely with our conservation and clean energy partners, Governor Mills' Administration, state agencies, decision makers, and our members and supporters to make dramatic progress on climate action, renewable energy generation, energy efficiency and electric vehicle infrastructure and use. Maine adopted one of the strongest carbon reduction policies in the U.S. Specifically, Maine's new policy requires development of a new State Climate Action Plan (Plan) by December 2020 (and every four years thereafter) paired with a legal requirement to reduce Maine's greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. The law also establishes a Maine Climate Council (MCC) to lead development of the Plan and oversee climate action across state agencies. The Plan will be the first in 15 years and is being developed through a broad stakeholder process. The MCC launched in September 2019 with 39 members and 7 working groups. NRCM staff are highly engaged with the Transportation; Buildings, Housing, and Infrastructure; Energy; and Natural & Working Lands working groups and are offering guidance, expert analysis, and recommendations for carbon reduction strategies to include in the Plan. NRCM also led a coalition of solar advocates and secured a comprehensive new solar policy that removes barriers to net metering, increases community solar project participants from 9 to 200, expands access to solar to low-and moderate-income homes, and directs the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to procure 375 Megawatts of distributed solar. This policy will spur Maine to generate more clean energy, lower carbon emissions, and create hundreds of clean energy jobs. We also developed a Toolkit for municipalities to install solar farms and worked with our partners to develop solar siting best practices to guide developers and municipalities as they pursue solar projects. NRCM also helped secure a new state rebate program for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles and promoted the rebates as well as state grant opportunities to install EV charging stations using our website, email, blog posts, letters to the editor and social media.

Communications: NRCM communicates with our members, supporters, policy makers, and the public using email updates and calls to action, community meetings and events, single issue reports, direct mail, radio, videos, social media, and our website. The wide range of tools we regularly use advances our mission and helps to meet the goals of our issue areas. The NRCM website, www.nrcm.org, is an especially critical tool to reach people with facts about our work. During the period April 1, 2019 - March 31, 2020 we saw a total of 226,443 unique visitors to our website. Our printed newsletter, Maine Environment is also extremely popular, and features updates on current environmental issues, upcoming special events, and a column by NRCM Chief Executive Officer Lisa Pohlmann. Social media is an ever-expanding tool to engage our members and the public. NRCM's Facebook page is our most popular social media tool to share information and engage the public and has grown over the past two years from just over 11,000 followers to an active community of more than 16,363 people. Linked-In, Instagram and Twitter have also seen significant growth in recent years. As a result of these tools and our efforts to continually improve our communications, we have developed a loyal network of supporters and activists in Maine and around the country.

State House/Emerging Issues: NRCM is Maine's top environmental watchdog. Performing within the allowable lobbying limits for a 501(c)3, NRCM monitors issues related to each of our programs as well as emerging environmental issues that could impact Maine's air, forests, waters, wildlife, and community health. Additionally, we represent environmental interests at the Maine Legislature, and before state agencies responsible for managing our state's natural resources. These include the Department of Environmental Protection, the Land Use Planning Commission, and the Public Utilities Commission.

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