Business and Economy

A new analysis finds that Maine could add more than 2,000 jobs through aggressive participation in the region's emerging offshore wind industry.

The study from the nonprofit American Jobs Project was co-authored by Ryan Wallace, director of the University of Southern Maine's Center for Business and Economic Research.

“Maine has some competitive advantages in innovation, industry development, as well as industry clusters that could support a supply chain,” Wallace says.

U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree’s effort to block a federal plan to drill offshore for oil and gas has failed on Capitol Hill.

The Interior Department announced last year that it planned to allow exploratory offshore drilling, prompting Pingree to propose a budget amendment that would have blocked the use of any funds appropriated to the agency to implement that plan.

Insurance companies in Maine that will offer individual health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace next year are proposing premium increases from about 5 to 9 percent. 

Maine-based independent health policy consultant Mitchell Stein says that's better than projections from the Congressional Budget Office, "which estimated that some of the actions of the administration would add at least 10 percent to the rates for this year."

Airbnb, a San Franciso-based global travel organization, announced Monday that it has remitted $5.3 million in taxes on behalf of Maine’s host community since its tax agreement with the state went into effect a year ago.

Andrew Kalloch, a public policy manager for Airbnb, said the company’s tax collection program offers a seamless process for individuals and families who share their home to make ends meet while providing a valuable source of revenue to the state.

Four farms and rural businesses in Maine will receive help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to install solar power panels.

The USDA Rural Development money will pump more than $65,000 into businesses in Bowdoinham, Freeport and Cumberland. All of the businesses are using the money to install solar arrays.

Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree says the money will help the businesses assuage high energy expenses with renewable power sources. The funds will go to Blue Bell Farm and Six River Farm in Bowdoinham, Autowerkes Maine in Freeport and Vanir Properties in Cumberland.

New England's clam harvest is in decline, and people who want to save it are encouraging the industry to try turning to a new model _ farming.

Fishermen have harvested soft-shell clams from coastal mud in Maine and other states for hundreds of years. But threats such as growing populations of predators drove Maine's harvest to its lowest total since the 1930s last year.

MACHIAS, Maine - Maine regulators plan to allow the state's sea urchin harvesters to spend the same number of days collecting the spiny creatures in the coming season.

Maine urchin harvesters are divided into two zones covering the eastern and western coasts. The Maine Department of Marine Resources says it plans to allow fishermen on the western coast to fish up to 15 days and their counterparts on the eastern coast to fish up to 38.

Those are both the same number of days as the 2017-18 season. The season stretches from September to March.

There was little change last month in the labor markets of Maine’s largest urban areas.  The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded a .1 percent decline in joblessness in each of the three regions:  Bangor, Lewiston-Auburn, and Portland-South Portland.  

The unemployment rate in Bangor now stands at 3 percent, Lewiston-Auburn at 2.8 percent and Portland-South Portland 2.4 percent.  The statewide unemployment rate in April was 3.1 percent.

PORTLAND, Maine - Some Central Maine Power customers are organizing a class action lawsuit against the utility concerning high power bills experienced last winter.
 
CMP Ratepayers Unite said in a statement Monday attorneys representing the group had retained a New York-based firm to help prepare the suit. The Portland Press Herald reports over 1,000 customers saw high winter power bills during the same period the utility company had billing system problems.