Join Friends of Merrymeeting Bay (FOMB) on Wednesday, February 12th at 7:00pm for the next installment of our 17th Annual Winter Speaker Series. This presentation, featuring Pete Didisheim, Senior Director of Advocacy at the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), is entitled "Mining in Maine: Open for Business?" The public is welcome and light refreshments will be served.

Last summer, Maine's Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) released a list of changes to its proposed mining rules which dramatically weakened these already-weak provisions. This despite overwhelming public support for stronger rules. The changes increase the likelihood Maine’s environment, including the watershed of Merrymeeting Bay, will suffer from serious mining pollution and that Maine taxpayers will have to pay to clean it up. Many of the proposed changes would allow mining companies to delay cleanup efforts which historically has led to taxpayer-funded cleanups years after companies have made their profits and abandoned the sites.

Didisheim and NRCM have been working on this issue extensively since the changes were proposed in Summer 2013. Read NRCM's report on mining at Bald Mountain here.

Pete has been the Senior Director of Advocacy at NRCM since 1996. He holds a B.A. from Williams College in biology and environmental studies and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University’s, Kennedy School of Government. Among numerous governmental positions, Pete has been chief of staff for U.S. Congressman George Brown, Jr. (D-CA), special assistant to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Hazel R. O'Leary, and executive director of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. Pete has worked for other nonprofits and serves on the board of the Maine League of Conservation Voters. He lives in Brunswick with his wife and two children.

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