Baldacci signs limits on coal plant emissions

AUGUSTA – Gov. John Baldacci has signed a measure to limit carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants in Maine.

Signed Wednesday, the bill also puts in place a three-year moratorium on building any coal gasification plants in Maine, instead of the interim rules originally proposed.

Also signed into law was a bill to end a dispute over plans to reintroduce alewives to the upper portions of the St. Croix River in eastern Maine.

The bill calls for opening only the Woodland Dam on the lower part of the river to alewives. The original plan called for opening that and the Grand Falls dam farther upstream.