Emmett Gartner

85 posts

Emmett Gartner is an environmental reporter for The Maine Monitor. Having grown up on the Chesapeake Bay, Emmett has long been interested in stories of adaptation and accountability.

He joined the newsroom in 2023 as a Roy W. Howard fellow and now explores how environmental policy aligns with Mainers’ lived experiences and where climate change complicates the status quo.

Previously, he reported for a daily newspaper in Maryland and spent separate summer stints working as a trail maintenance worker in Nevada, a wildland firefighter in Oregon and an environmental educator on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Contact Emmett with questions, concerns or story ideas: gro.r1753693304otino1753693304menia1753693304meht@1753693304ttemm1753693304e1753693304

Language(s) Spoken: English

exterior of the ND Paper Mill in Rumford.

Pollute less, profit more: How Maine industry is rewarded for cutting down emissions and wastewater

A state tax exemption benefits industrial companies for cutting down on pollution but also draws millions of dollars away from small-town tax revenue, and never expires.

ByEmmett Gartner

December 2, 2023

Aerial view of the Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.

$1.6 million in tax revenue on the line for Wiscasset in dispute over nuclear waste facility

The state statute rewards companies for limiting pollution at the cost of the towns where they’re located. For Wiscasset, the price tag could be in the millions.

ByEmmett Gartner

November 19, 2023

Governor Janet Mills speaks at a podium during a Lewiston press conference.

Mills ready to hear proposals to further gun safety

Gov. Janet Mills, according to a spokesman, has begun reaching out to state legislators for ideas in the aftermath of the Lewiston murders.

ByEmmett Gartner

November 5, 2023

Police cars outside the Lewiston bar where a mass shooting happened.

Ellsworth Police officer notified of Robert Card’s threats in mid-September

The department alerted Sagadahoc County law enforcement and requested they complete a wellbeing check.

ByEmmett Gartner

October 31, 2023

Maine’s vast rural expanse complicates the search for Lewiston shooting suspect

Boats and remote vehicles search Androscoggin River as part of massive manhunt.

ByEmily Bader Emmett Gartner Samantha Hogan

October 27, 2023

A white paper heart that says to my community is stapled to a tree.

A city, and a state, in shock

“In a split second your world gets turn(ed) upside down for no good reason."

ByEmily Bader Emmett Gartner

October 26, 2023

Lewiston mass shooting suspect seen in a still from surveillance footage.

The latest on Lewiston mass shootings

A lockdown is in place across Androscoggin County after what appears to be the deadliest shooting in Maine history. It was the country’s 36th mass killing this year.

ByEmily Bader Emmett Gartner George Harvey

October 25, 2023