AUGUSTA, Maine — A coalition that’s pushing for a referendum on renewable energy faces a deadline to drop off enough petitions to force a November vote.
Maine Citizens for Clean Energy called off a midday news conference Monday as a 5 p.m. deadline to deliver their petitions to state election officials closed in. At least 57,277 voters’ signatures must be certified in order to put the proposal on the ballot.
Spokesman Dan Cashman said campaign leaders were checking to see if they had collected the required number of signatures.
The referendum proposal would require that at least 20 percent of Maine’s electricity come from renewable energy sources, such as wind, tidal and solar, by 2020, and that utilities invest in energy efficiency whenever it would reduce energy costs for ratepayers.
The option is to voluntarily pay more for your green electricity instead of making it a bureaucratic process. Individuals or organizations with the resources should start investing in renewable energy projects without depending on a political solution. An infrastructure should be established to create a mechanism to assist the development of renewable energy sources. A mandate leading to a fixed percentage of green energy by a certain date will spur developers but will not necessarily arrive at the best solution and might lead to some abuse. We need leadership to optimize the energy mix and is should not be concentrated on electricity.
“An infrastructure should be established to create a mechanism to assist the development of renewable energy sources.”
You could call it “smart meters “.
They should run backwards, too.
No! No! No! Therein lies the fallacy of wind power. You have to include “infrastructure. . .to assist the development” Not with my tax dollars! You have “a mandate” Yes, you can’t do it without forcing higher costs on to ratepayers, can you? Then what drives “optimize the energy mix”? Free markets and individual choice or heinous mandates?
8 mandates raise rates;
Estimates of 40 – 80 million dollar increase in rates because of NCRM and Efficiency Maine and CLF ballot initiative.=$60,000,000 / 560,000 ratepayers = $107.42 a year……okay..that hurts
The government has been subsidizing renewable energy development at the cost of Maine ratepayers. As a result, energy prices have skyrocketed over the past decade and we can no longer expect Maine people to foot the rising bill.
1. Reliability Maine; 8% of $30 billion for Maine would be $2.4 billion in expense for Maine ratepayers. = rate hike = 2.400,000,000 / 560,000 = $4,2857 per household.
2. Efficiency Maine , a program that places a surtax on everyone’s electric bill. That’s an increase = rate hike.
3.Add a cent of stranded cost(biomass 1980’s) to your per kilowatt hour charges—‘cha-ching’.
4. Shutting Maine Yankee before its expected lifetime added one cent to two cents to your bill–“cha-cjing’
5. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) pushed by the NRCM——add another cent.–‘cha-ching’
6. Capacity payments, the payments made to standby-on-demand industrial and commercial electricity producers, yep, pushed by these environmentalists. One cent more—‘cha-ching’.
7. Long-term contracts to the wind industry and conservation charges lobbied for by NRCM employees—another cent, ‘cha-ching’.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
Seems to be some confusion among these pro-wind advocates. On Jennifer Rooks’ “Maine Watch” show on MPBN (that has been broadcast each of the last 3 nights), Jack Parker (CEO) of Reed & Reed, (who has been the primary contractor for most all of the grid scale wind projects in Maine and who’s company has made millions of $$$ off of these projects), stated unequivically that they had more than 70,000 signatures.
Not that that’s a surprise to those who oppose these wind projects, as the developers and their contractors and sub-contractors have routinely “exagerated the truth” and “mis-spoken” the facts. When actually confronted with the cold hard facts, they shrug their shoulders and say that the information they had previously presented as “Gospel” must have been a clerical mistake. They’ll say or do anything to enhance their ability to continue sucking up Federal and local tax dollars at unprecedented rates, all under the false guise of “green energy”. For those of us who seek the truth about renewable energy, it’s so obvious that this wind power movement is nothing more than a very well planned and well scripted tax payer money grab of record proportions. These politically engineered opportunities to grab billions in Federal funds only comes along about once in a lifetime and the proponents will say or do anything to maximize their financial windfall.
If they can’t get the numbers right on how many valid signatures they have when they are sitting on sheets of paper in front of them it tells you a lot about all the other numbers they use: Property taxes paid, permanent jobs provided, economic boost to the local economy, CO2 emssions avoided, etc.
A deserved loss!
Yes, they were paid to collect signatures, as I was told by one of them a few weeks ago.
They could have done a better job. But they were waiting for more subsidy money to support their next try.
You know how mercenaries work.
The average Mainer would collect signatures For Free to LOWER THEIR RATES!
This initiative was the reverse of that fact.
The average Mainer also knows this proposal was supported by Wind Shills from away and self-serving companies like REED & REED.
It was called, take my money, for MORE EXPENSIVE intermittent sometimes wind electricity. Most just laughed and turned away, as I did.
Mainers are learning every day now how this renewable scam works, with the Governor’s help.
He knows, We want lower rates, Not higher ones!
Well, DUH, does that make sense.
You Bet!
Bring on the Hydro and Gas Governah!
A new PAC has formed to demand lower rates for all of us .
Now , I wonder if they can get those signatures to Lower Rates, from dense energy sources, by removing renewable mandates that increase electrical costs for us all.
I for one, would collect those signatures, FOR FREE!