BATH

International environmental organization 350.org will have a new chapter in the Bath/Brunswick area with the creation of 350 Midcoast Maine.

In starting the chapter, organizer Mike White said his main focus is “to get the people in the area of Bath/Brunswick and surrounding towns all the way up to Damariscotta interested in becoming active in climate issues and in supporting the coming renewable energy legislation that will be presented to the Legislature this year.”

White is a Georgetown resident and the owner or Island Carpentry, a company that makes energy efficient homes in the Midcoast. For White, the struggle to develop more solar electricity in Maine has been ongoing for years.

“When I started to convert my business away from being a conventional building company to energy efficiency, I began to read about renewable energy particularly solar electricity,” said White. “At that time — around 2006 — what I discovered was that basically solar electric systems were unaffordable.”

White was disappointed with his findings. He had hoped to incorporate solar electricity into his energy efficient homes, but was forced to admit that it wasn’t a realistic option. Still, he continued researching the issues surrounding solar electricity, eventually stumbling across an article about Germany’s feed-in tariff solar policy.

Working with other environmental activists and groups in 2008-2009, White helped bring a feed-in tariff to the Maine Legislature. While that measure didn’t end up passing, elements of it were merged with another bill to form that Maine Renewable Energy Sources Act which did pass.

While the national 350.org group has a wide focus, weighing in on everything from the transportation of tar sands oil to the Standing Rock controversy this year, White says that his group will focus largely on solar electricity.

According to White, setting up this local organization is something he can do to protect the environment.

“This is what I can do, and I’m going to give it a shot,” he said.

350 Midcoast Maine will have its first meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 10 at the Patten Free Library.