Grad student, effort to create sustainability license plate featured in Press Herald

The Portland Press Herald published a feature article on University of Maine graduate student Garrett Raymond as part of its “Meet” series. Raymond is pursuing a master’s degree in the School of Economics and is a member of the campus-based group Maine Community Energy Advocates. The group’s goal is to advance community energy projects in the state, and one of the ways they want to do that is by creating a specialty license plate around the theme of sustainability, specifically in the arena of energy use and generation, according to the article. Raymond said he was introduced to the idea of a sustainably oriented license plate by one of his undergraduate professors, Sharon Klein, during an energy economics class. The Maine Community Energy Advocates plan to visit community meetings of environmental groups to spread the word about the license plate. They have until the fall to find 2,000 people who want the license plate; Maine’s Department of Motor Vehicles won’t proceed with the plate otherwise, the article states. Jessica Huff, a student in UMaine’s new media program, designed the plate, which features a light bulb topped with an evergreen and a moose, as well as the words “SUSTAIN MAINE” across the bottom, Press Herald reported.