Press Herald quotes Fernandez in article on effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions

Ivan Fernandez, a professor of soil science and forest resources at the University of Maine, was quoted in the Portland Press Herald article, “Views clash as DEP readies greenhouse gas reduction forced by citizen initiative.” Maine environmental regulators heard hours of testimony on a citizen-initiated proposal that would require the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent annually while imposing new regulations on the trucking and biomass industries, according to the article. Scientists and fishermen told Department of Environmental Protection representatives that Maine can longer afford to delay taking more decisive action on climate-warming emissions, the article states. Fernandez said he had not studied the details of the proposed emissions standards, but agreed with the push to further reduce emissions levels. A faculty member with UMaine’s Climate Change Institute, Fernandez said Maine farmers are experiencing more droughts, Lyme disease is spreading rapidly as the climate warms and fishermen are facing increasingly acidic waters as the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from the air. “If the only concern from rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere were ocean acidification, we would still have a burgeoning global crisis with Maine on the front lines,” he said.