A new report released today by the National Wildlife Federation confirms what some have been saying for several years: that the Northeast and Maine will experience more thin ice, shorter ski seasons and a decline in species such as moose and lynx as climate change takes its toll. Environmental groups in Maine are calling for more investments in energy efficiency and alternative energy to combat these effects. And they are not necessarily on the same page with some of the strategies embraced by President Obama in his State of the Union speech last night.

A year ago, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress and warned members about the ravaging effects of climate change and the need to pass legislation that puts a cap on carbon pollution and creates more renewable energy alternatives.

But in his State of the Union address last night, the president's approach was more accepting of ideas that make some environmentalists shudder. He talked about building more nuclear power plants, exploring for oil and gas offshore, and making investments in so-called "clean coal" technology.

"There's no such thing as clean coal and there may never be," says Steve Hinchman, an environmental attorney who consults for Grid Solar and led the effort to defeat a coal gasification plant in Wiscasset three years ago.

Hinchman says coal is inherently dirty. Of all energy sources, burning coal releases the most greenhouse gases. The only way to clean it is through a carbon capture technology that is only in the very early experimental stages.

And Hinchman says nuclear power has its challenges too. "It would take decades of billion dollar investments to give us enough nukes and that same money poured into efficiency-like solar would produce immediate benefits. It would save ratepayers money and it would cut our pollution now instead of potentially maybe in the future."

Hinchman says he thinks President Obama's reference to "clean coal" was necessary to appease Republican congressional representatives from the Midwest, where coal is king and where there may be resistance to climate change measures.

Political necessity or not, Ray Sirois of Harrison, Maine says he's disappointed. Sirois works for an engineering firm that consults with municipalities about how to be more climate change-friendly. "We really don't have a good clean coal strategy. It doesn't exist. So it disappointed me greatly that that made it into the State of Union."

At a news conference to release the findings of a new report by the National Widlife Federation, titled "Odd-ball Winter Weather: Global Warming's Wake-up Call for the Northern United States," Lisa Pohlman of the Natural Resources Council of Maine said intrusive pests, crop damage and strains on municipal budgets for road clearing and infastructure repair are likely to be some of the effects of warmer and more erratic winters.

Already this week, Maine has seen 50 degree temperatures, heavy rains and ice jams. But Pohlman says climate change seems to have fallen off the radar screen for many people. "There's no question that in the middle of the largest recession we've had in our lifetime that people are bound to be more worried about paying their mortgage and feeding their kids than they are about exactly what's happening outside their window, but I think in Maine people are aware. People see the changes, and it may be low on the priority list but that doesn't mean it's gone away."

Pohlman says an NRCM poll last year showed three-quarters of respondants favored federal climate change legislation. The question is, are Americans as divided over what kind of measures should be included in that legislation as they are about health care?

Both Pohlman and Steve Hinchman say they are encouraged that President Obama did mention more clean energy jobs and efficiency. And Hinchman believes it's only a matter of time before economic reality trumps politics. "Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey just pulled a $1.2 billion transmission expansion project because efficiency and changes in the economy and local distributive generation were offering faster, cheaper solutions to the grid expansion."

Hinchman says in the end, clean energy competition from other sources like solar will drive coal and nuclear power out of the marketplace.