Energy in Maine
No matter your political views or what part of Maine you live in, we are all feeling the impacts of the cost of the energy we use. Not only do we feel those impacts directly when we pay our monthly electric bill, but the cost of electricity is built into the price of the products/services that we purchase on a daily basis. So it is likely that energy costs are important to all of us. So far on the campaign trail, as I have been talking with Mainers, it has also been true that most Mainers would like to see those costs go down.
Maine is currently ranked 43rd in the nation for the cost of electricity. While we pay around .24 cents/kwh, there are states that pay less than half that much. We need to be asking "how did we get here? and "what are these states doing differently than we are?" What do we need to do to lower our rate? Not all electricity is created equal; some energy is more efficient than others. How much is the State putting toward energy generation? What laws do we have that are holding us back? Part of the equation for Maine comes down to the fact that CMP/Versant are buying costly electricity and are passing on that high cost to us. Why would they do that?? As fun as it is to get mad at our electric companies, much of the blame falls on Augusta and the laws that have been passed in their insatiable pursuit of “green” energy. Under Maine’s current Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) Law, 80 percent of retail electricity must come from renewable resources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050. The standard also requires that the generation facilities are limited to 100 megawatts - except wind and solar energy facilities; they are excluded from that limit. These laws are written to encourage more production from those more expensive, less efficient forms of energy...just because they're the favorites!
A group of New England think tanks (including The Maine Policy Institute) released a report, “The Staggering Costs of New England’s Green Energy Policies,” that is worth reading (find it here: The Staggering Costs of New England's Green Energy Policies - Maine Policy Institute). In this report they state that 6% of New England’s energy currently comes from renewable energy (in 2023). They also state that with the electric vehicle push and other factors they anticipate electricity demand to more than double by 2050. To hit all of the state’s goals with the anticipated demand, this report estimates that it would require over 129 million solar panels, 6,600 offshore wind turbines and 5,600 regular wind turbines. The anticipated cost to New England rate payers of this build-out is $815 billion through 2050. The report indicates that if we continue down this path, residential rate payers could anticipate paying an additional $99 each year.
We need to explore more efficient options of energy, and nuclear is one of those solutions. Nuclear energy is clean and is considered to be one of the most efficient forms of energy, but Maine legislators have banned the state from building new nuclear facilities here. Our legislators in Augusta just recently voted to not even explore what using nuclear energy could look like in Maine. They care more deeply about appearing to be green than finding an energy source that works for the people of Maine. Much has changed in the 28 years since Maine Yankee was closed, we owe it to ourselves to explore the nuclear options out there today. Maybe we won't go that route, but we absolutely owe it to ourselves to explore it thoroughly.
My conclusion is that we need a government that puts the people ahead of its environmental theory. There are clean and efficient forms of energy out there and we need to be finding them, not destroying our landscape and our personal budgets with inefficient energy sources. A side note, if you, as an individual Mainer want to buy a wind turbine or solar panels for your house, great...go for it! But our government should not be forcing all of us to pay 46% more for our energy than the average American. On a state-wide level, they're too inefficient and ineffective to be our biggest sources of energy.
As governor, I will petition and work with the legislature to try to change and pass laws that put Maine's people first. We can be environmentally friendly and sustainable, while putting the people of Maine as the priority, and we must do this.
Hydroelectric Power Vs Wind Power – How Energy Works in Todays World (energyunderstood.com)