Everyone in Maine has noticed an increase in their electric bills. The fault for this is the result of the current Democratic administration in Maine. First, the Public Utility Commission (PUC) members are all appointees of the Governor. Second, the policies of the Democrats, under which Maine has operated for about 50 years, have “come home to roost.” Just like our present recession in America, that was created by Joe Biden, so our high electric bills in Maine were created by the Democrats. The policies for Maine are created by our Governor, Legislators, and the Bureaucrats that they appoint in Augusta. We the people, in the State of Maine, suffer! Third, Net Energy billing is a disaster and must go. Fourth, the energy planner for Maine needs to be replaced with a new mission.
Please take time to read the following article by Maine State Senator Trey Stewart, which I totally support. Then at the end, please read my “food for thought”. I know the following is a long essay, but you will understand the problem and the solutions. It is worth the read and enables the spreading the truth!
Energy Issues in 2022 and Republican Solutions
State vs Federal Dynamic
You’ve no doubt heard that “the war in Ukraine is responsible for energy cost increases.” While this may be true for some markets, this is not the case in others. For example, here in Maine, we have two major “grids.” One in Northern Maine, which is essentially isolated from the rest of the state (NMISA) and the rest of the state which is a part of ISO-NE (the New England “grid”). Unless you are Rep. Sue Bernard or myself, you are either mostly or entirely represented within the ISO, so for the rest of this document, I will assume as much and make references to that part of our energy infrastructure.
Given this structure, our rates are contingent on the supply of energy within and into the ISO. On any given day, at any given time, that mix will likely consist of roughly 60+% natural gas, particularly in the evenings and winter months. As such, when the increase in natural gas prices occurred (both as a result of the Biden administration’s war on fossil fuels, as well as the uncertainty in the European markets), the price increases of NG lead to overall rate increases for all ratepayers in the ISO. From a state perspective, there’s not much that can be done about this, except for finding an alternative to NG for Maine. This alternative-seeking approach makes sense, particularly when you consider that Maine is at the “end of the line” for several mediums of transportation for NG (literally, both rail and pipelines), which leads to less supply at higher costs when it eventually does get here after passing through Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, etc.
Net Energy Billing
Net Energy Billing is a program that was changed by the legislature immediately when the Democrats took control in 2019. From a simplistic view, the program allows those who generate power distributed throughout the grid to be recouped for the cost of those electrons at the retail rate (the rate from Versant/CMP that they charge rate payers). As you know, there are three components to your electricity bill: generation/supply, transmission and distribution. When we “deregulated” about 20 years ago, we no longer allowed utilities in Maine to own all three parts of that process and required that they contract and purchase electrons, which they are then relegated to just moving around the grid and billing customers for (See above for why this dynamic can be a problem if your major fuel source spikes and you have no way to hedge). If the overall cost of electricity goes up (like it did this past year), these developers make hay.
Net Energy Billing projects are specifically for small-scale generation projects (less than 5 MW) and there is nothing which requires them to be conveniently located on our grid, meaning they suffer from lack of economies of scale and add costs to ratepayers because the grid will need to be improved by the utilities in unnecessary ways. Our grid was designed a long time ago to now have large amounts of power (tens or hundreds of MW) generated from a single location and flow outward towards the demand for them. This program now literally is requiring that electrons be generated wherever and without proper planning or siting on the developer’s part and the utility must ensure that the connection goes smoothly and does not result in issues, or else it will damage their own rating.
To break this down into simplest terms, if utilities must now purchase small-scale solar generation (because of the new law) at a cost of 16-18 cents/kWh when the PUC could competitively bid and purchase hundreds of MWs of other power– or even large-scale solar– for 4 cents/kWh, we have lost all competitive nature of our electrical bidding process. To make matters worse, this is a generation program that’s billed for on the transmission and distribution (T & D) side of your bill– meaning that we will be experiencing a chicken-or-egg issue shortly when rates must go up on T&D (the utilities) side of the bill for something that they aren’t even allowed to be engaging in. This problem, coupled with the hundreds of millions that CMP and Versant will need to alter their grids to allow for these new projects will result in massive rate increases for ratepayers across Maine. Thankfully, only about 10% of these projects that are in the interconnecting “queue” to date have actually been hooked up and we are flowing electrons and costing ratepayers. For context, there are more projects in the queue than there is actual electrical consumption in the entire state, meaning that if they all come online our energy costs will increase exponentially. (Thank you Democrats!)
Hydro Power
In the early 2000s, the Left pushed to make hydroelectric power the boogieman of renewable energy. They passed a law in Maine that prevents any hydroelectric generation over 100 MW from being eligible for renewable energy credits, which greatly stalled investments and development of any new hydro project. The question is, Why? Simply put, hydro power that’s cheap (3-4 cents/kWh), base loadable/non-intermittent (unlike wind and solar), and renewable would spell bad news for the wind and solar industries who were working hard to make inroads in Maine. So, they just changed the law to box hydro out and arbitrarily stopped calling it “renewable.” (Thank you Democrats!)
Heating Alternatives
Heat pumps have gotten a lot of attention from both the right and left in recent years. From one viewpoint, heat pumps increase demand on the grid, which in areas like the Versant territory where we are losing population and have a lot of fixed costs from our infrastructure, can help to alleviate that problem some. However, you still need to have an overall energy price that’s competitive in order to capture the value from a heat pump, which presently isn’t the case. There are also issues with performance in the severely cold months of Maine– I can attest to this as I own one but still rely on my furnace to stay warm from December to March.
There is another option that can and should be discussed. Locally-sourced wood heating options provide not only base-load heat that heat pumps cannot offer, they are also cheaper to run (particularly when oil is $5/gallon) than many systems currently in place in Maine. There have been a lot of improvements in these systems and the technology that they run and if we are discussing which programs to support in state government (AKA “which programs to subsidize”), I think we should be doing so with an eye towards our local economy. By encouraging folks to move to wood heating options, we are ensuring that our forest products sector will remain strong and have more markets to consume their byproducts, which is a huge lift for both loggers and mills. Rather than sending our local money out of state through heat pump subsidies (or, at the very least, in addition to), we should be considering this option which keeps almost 100% of the funds in-state.
Solutions
- Develop a long-term energy plan that’s cost-effective and ratepayer focused
Janet Mills’ “Maine Won’t Wait” report is a disaster. The effect of this climate-at-all-costs in a small state like Maine will result in very little being achieved that actually addresses climate issues, but a huge increase in costs for everyone who lives here. This isn’t a plan, it’s a political farce. We need a real, long-term strategy in Maine that can survive political pendulum swings and remain targeted on keeping costs low for ratepayers and keeping Maine attractive for businesses and economic growth. This should be done with some “teeth” to ensure that either 1) the PUC has the tools they need to stick to this plan, or 2) a change in the legislative process that makes deviation for purely partisan/political reasons is very difficult to do.
- Create or repurpose resources to have an energy planner in Maine
In theory, the Governor’s Energy Office can and should be focused on lowering ratepayer costs, but in reality, they have become a tool for the far left to accomplish their goals without regard for costs. This position should have more influence and be filled with highly-qualified and experienced staff (engineers, rather than political science majors) and have more power to push back on proposals that deviate from the state’s long-term plan (see above).
- Support local options for heat
Baked into this mix of solutions, should be support for diversifying our heating options here in Maine with ones that are not only more affordable, but also have tremendous benefit to our local economy and create and secure jobs here in Maine.
- Eliminate Net Energy Billing
There may be some contract clause issues that come up for those 10% of project that are already connected, but we must end this program ASAP to avoid more harm to ratepayers to solely benefit the solar industry.
- Eliminate the 100 MW hydro “cap” (straight-forward, see above)
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Once upon a time, Maine had a nuclear reactor. It was called Maine Yankee. Under the fear of nuclear waste and possible disaster, it was dismantled. We were told that higher electric bills would result and now they are here! But wait, wasn’t the promise, that by “going green” we would solve this problem? Well, how has that worked out for us? Higher electric bills are the result and we are positioned for the bills to go even higher! The nuclear scare was a “red herring”! Why? We still have nuclear! What do you think propels our Navy ships at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Bath Iron Works? Shouldn’t a wiser Mainer reconsider Maine Yankee?
Folks, we must laugh at our lack of common sense. Our “social elites” are yelling for electric cars. Yet in California, with high temperatures, the “social elites” are now yelling, “use LESS electricity because our electric grid cannot take the current demand!” Are you able to connect the dots? What would happen if they had electric cars now? By the way, do you know how much earth must be removed to harvest the resources needed, in order to make one car battery and how much weight is added to electric cars to propel them down the road?
Friends in Maine, we need to fix our electrical infrastructure. We need to change policies and direction! In a FEW DAYS, we start the process of EARLY VOTING in Maine, which begins October 11. Please join me and my family as we vote REPUBLICAN down the ballot!
Rev. David Corbett
Maine Senate Candidate
District 32 (Biddeford, Arundel, Dayton, Lyman, Hollis)