In this week's Phoenix, out tomorrow, Lance Tapley talks to state senator Justin Alfond about several troubling pieces of legislation still up for debate in Augusta (there are just two weeks left until the end of the legislative session).

One of those is LD 1853, An Act To Improve Environmental Oversight and Streamline Permitting for Mining in Maine, which would change the state's mining laws, making them more lenient.

Anyone who thinks that January's much-hyped news about the Keystone XL pipeline is the ultimate victory against tar sands oil is sorely mistaken. In fact, there is a plan in the works to potentially pump such heavy, viscous oil into Portland.

Next week, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Council of Maine will bring national enviro experts to the University of Southern Maine to outline about what this could mean for Maine, our environment, and our drinking water (Bill McKibben, who was in town just recently and is a leading activist against Big Oil, will supposedly be Skyping in).

More tomorrow.

The man being hailed as key in killing the Keystone XL pipeline is speaking in Westbrook tonight. Deirdre Fulton spoke with him this week; read the piece here. If you can't make the talk, which is at 6 pm at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center, 471 Stroudwater St, Westbrook, here's the link to UNE's livestream of the event

Drew Steinbeiser's article about blue bags and garbage disposal in Portland generated a lot of feedback. Now it looks like Cape Elizabethians will be grappling with the same issues. The CE Town Council will take public comment tonight on a paid-bag system like the one Portland has, according to the Forecaster. The article publishes some interesting statistics:

Local sustainable transportation activists are making noise about tonight's Portland City Council meeting, which takes place at 7 pm at City Hall. Fees in lieu of parking, which are described eloquently here and here, basically encourage developers to opt out of the city's parking requirements (which require builders to provide a certain amount of parking spaces depending on the building's size and use) and pay a $10,000 fee instead.

We've all seen the interactive map that places the Gulf oil spill on top of your hometown or region. (Around here, it would span from Lawrence, Mass, to Calais -- and westward into New Hampsire and Vermont.)

Here's another way of reconceptualizing the BP disaster: in terms of energy wasted. EnergySavvy.com, a Web site that provides energy-efficiency resources for home owners and energy contractors, calculated that "the energy contained in the biggest oil spill in US history is equal to the energy that just 75,000 homes waste in a single year," which "represent less than 0.

A group of activists gathered on Wednesday outside the Nickelodeon to educate the public about toxic chemicals in cosmetics and fragrances, and to promote the Safe Chemicals Act, which calls for more rigorous EPA testing of consumer products.

Chemicals linked to cancer, allergic and immune-system reactions, and reproductive disorders show up in everything from nail polish to lotion to hairspray, they said.

Here's a cool mapping program that lets you see how bad it is - here's the oil spill laid over the map of Maine. If you center the spill on Augusta, it reaches from Casco Bay to the border of Washington County, with outlying areas as far away as Vermont.

(You can also enter other locations, to see how much of other areas of the globe it would cover.)

In next week's Going Green column, I'll talk about what goes into raising eco-friendly, healthy, pasture-raised, organic meat. Today I met these fellows:

Yup, those are one-and-a-half-week-old piglets! Alice and Rufus Percy, of Treble Ridge Farm, were great hosts and I'm looking forward to writing this piece.

Portland has had a car-sharing program for approximately one year. While experts are still analyzing the numbers and what they mean for U-Car Share in Maine, here's some raw data, brought to you courtesy of Excel spreadsheets (I remember how to find averages! thanks college!) and transportation advocate/city councilor Kevin Donoghue:

Seriously, this is ridiculously revisionist history in the service of environmentalism.

We just got an e-mail from them with five tips for a "green" holiday season.

Here's tip number 1: "Think global, eat local - The Colonials didn’t get their meal from the freezer case at the local supermarket. Why should you?"

This overlooks the fact that the Colonials nearly didn't get their fucking meal at all.

The Maine Department of Transportation is planning how to make traffic (car, bike, and foot, presumably) flow more safely and smoothly at Exit 7, off 295. But several groups, including the League of Young Voters, the Maine Alliance for Sustainable Transportation, and the Franklin Reclamation Authority, are expressing disappointment that the most recent MDOT plan does not include a scheme to connect Franklin with Back Cove for pedestrians.

What isn't happening tomorrow?

-- From 11 a.m.-1 p.m., the Local Sprouts Community Kitchen will host an open house in its new Public Market House digs.

-- At 2 p.m., outside of the Kennebunk Water District office, a coalition of water-rights activists will hold a rally and press conference to protest the proposed Nestle contract there

In front of a youngish crowd dressed as lobsters, Environment Maine and several public officials (including city councilors Jim Cohen and Nick Mavodones, and David Littell, the state's environmental commissioner) touted a new report this morning, full of practical ways to curb global warming. The report, "Global Warming Solutions That Work: Cutting-Edge Efforts to Curb Global Warming Pollution and the Lessons They Hold for America," includes case studies of successful strategies worldwide, such as transit-oriented development in Arlington, Virginia; pro-bike programs in Portland, Oregon; development of the renewable-energy industry in Spain; and widespread implementation of solar water heaters in Israel

New site, created to call out "projects that obviously were not vetted by the Maine Sensible Transportation Act...[which was] created to keep MDOT from completely paving over Maine, after Mainers were worn down and relented to allow the widening of Rt 95 south of Portland," according to an email sent out by webmaster Tim Sullivan.