AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage is unhappy with the way his bill to lower energy costs is shaping up.
LePage has been talking about energy prices since his campaign for governor in 2010 and has made the issue a priority this legislative session.
His bill removes a 100-megawatt limit to qualify as a renewable resource in order to meet the state’s renewable resource portfolio requirement. The governor says this change would open the door to long-term contracts with generators, specifically hydro power, at discounted prices. Those energy savings would be passed to commercial as well as residential customers.
LePage is not happy with committee changes to his bill, which would let the Maine Public Utilities Commission decide case-by-case when to allow the cap to be lifted.
Oh Mr. LePage as your supporters have been so eager to tell all of us, “get over it”. Something tells me you will be seeing a lot of your legislation getting changed come next legislative session.
M5. Maine> Overall grade: F (56%)> Public access to information: F> Legislative accountability: F> Political financing: D+> Ethics enforcement agencies: F
Maine received F grades in nine of the 14 measured categories, including legislative accountability, lobbying disclosure and public access to information. The State Integrity Investigation identifies the existence of possible conflicts of interest and corruption. According to the report, there is no law in place, for example, to force Democratic State Senator Jim Brannigan to disclose that the organization that he was a director of received $98 million in Maine government contracts. On February 1, Republican State Representative David Burns was arrested for violating campaign finance laws such as falsifying records and misusing funds.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/investing/2012/03/22/americas-most-corrupt-states/#ixzz1qzguwj MAINE STATUS, WHY ISN’T THIS FRONT PAGE NEWS ?????
Uh, the study you cited has been laughed off the national media stage because it was so flawed. Not to say Maine is incorruptible, there has been corruption, but the idea that we are the worst in the nation is like saying that your home is the most insecure in the country because you left a door unlocked even though you never have been burglarized. Any study that ranks Maine lower than New Jersey and Illinois in corruption must be scrutinized. Maine’s problems with government (while we have had our share of scandal and corruption) are more about ideology and failed policies than theft and corruption.
This study was just released today unless you have some sort of fast track to newly released information ?
Exactly. Why do you think the present occupant of the Blaine House would want to have a law that allows a “case by case” basis for determining anything? Maybe so that his cronies could do what they wanted without having a law as a basis for the action. Case by case is a way for crooked politicians to reward their friends. And people with a lot of money have friends in all the political parties.
Dose not matter WHAT letter they have in front of their name (D,L,T,I,R,…) they ALL lie and tell the people what they THINK we want to hear…..and then stuff their,and their friends pockets at OUR expense ! they are ALL members of the “good ol boys ” club. And before anyone says “What about women are they a part of that club too ? YOU BET !!!
Because it says Fox
Fox is Faux News.
Keep at it Gov. They’ll catch on to your great common sense eventually.
Hard to catch on to when he has none!!
Whats wrong with buying Hydro power from Canada the untimate in renewable resources for power? There shouldn’t be a barrier to that at all no matter what the MW it puts out. Get the power where ever it is cheapest for Maine. Wind isn’t the answer without subsidies they wouldn’t even build them, no money to be made. Bring back Passamaquoddy Tidal Project. Use it wisely and insulate too.
Cheap power makes the greenies very mad.
It makes it easier for people to start and expand businesses in Maine.
It runs counter to their desire to depopulate Maine in order to establish a wilderness park.
The Conservative plan is to drive the poor out by starvation and frostbite and give what little the working man has to the rich campaign contributors. They want to make the state a haven and playground for trust-fund babies. We will see who prevails.
No.
The conservative plan is to make it possible for them to either, starve and get frostbite, or GO TO WORK.
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What’s not sensical about ending discrimination against hydro-power? Maine’s electrical rates are very high and we are all taxed to fund wind companies that unelected bureaucrats have decided are “better.”
Governor LePage thinks all Maine companies should be treated equally and that Maine businesses and citizens should be able to get cheaper electricity.
Just to set things straight. Solar and wind will compete with electricity produced from fossil fuels. Producing electricity from renewables in Maine keeps energy dollars in our economy. It is better to invest maybe even to pay more now in order to create a sustainable energy future.
Hydro power from Quebec sounds ok but not at the expense of our young renewable energy industry. I commend the Energy and Utilities Committee for standing their ground.
And INSULATE
“Solar and wind will compete with electricity produced from fossil fuels.”
When will this happen in the absence of government mandates that we buy solar and wind generated energy? They certainly can’t compete right now. If they could, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.There seems to be a mistaken belief that Maine owns the wind blowing over its mountains. For the purposes of energy production, the wind belongs to the companies putting up wind turbines – and in Maine these are almost exclusively non-Maine companies. Some are foreign owned companies. There will be no broadly realized gains for Mainers.
I can see why LePage is unhappy: a case-by-case review is an open invitation to graft. Once the state’s Democrats have cast him into the outer darkness and retaken the reins of power, though, graft will no longer be a factor. Especially in the pages of the BDN.
The real question facing the BDN’s more Democratic commenters is if LePage is merely the Beast of Revelation or the actual Antichrist himself. Stay tuned for further rhetorical developments.
Seems like you’re engaging in the exact same behavior you’re complaining about.
What, satire?
No, hyperbole.
There is the faith based approach, for ya.
PFP, believes in LePage, the Great White , No Compromise, Hope , no questions asked. But I just want to know NOT JUST WHAT LEPAGE WANTED, just like someone else’s Halloween candy, but what the grown-ups have changed and WHY .
Which energy projects should not approached based on its specific
impact, costs and benefits ?
When did writing a blank check and it calling that … what… “good business” , Governah, become good policy ?
How many glass elver runs, worth what to local economy on a renewable basis , would a mini megawatt, corporate depreciation, tax loss dam have already destroy in Maine ?
Shouldn’t the same kind of feasibility studies, as are so very important
for the East West Highway to Nowhere in Maine, be done for each little dang dam?
So, why not ?
Sorry, to so unfairly reply to your faith based points with secular dam, ( pun intended)
logic and reason, Porlock.
BTW, how long ago was it that all stories in the BDN about low megawatt dams were about them not being inspected, and/or abandoned ?
Pish-tush. Y’all are just mad because my baseless aspersions are more elegantly cast than yours.
Someone please show me where there is in Maine, owned and operated, a single hydro plant anywhere left standing ? LePage’s bill is nothing more than another way to outsource our electrical need’s to Canada, where we already have a whole bunch of our money going to in the 1st place, and continue to cripple this State by keeping us dependent on Foreign Energy. While a lot of folk’s are not happy with the idea of Maine dam’s being built and used for both flood control and hydroelectric power, there are ‘happy medium’s’ available. It’s about time that Maine took the lead and started to actually do something to get these idea’s up and running instead of their constantly being used a source of ‘Chicken Little’ aggravation. Vermont has done so, and done so quite successfully. We need, as a State, to start realizing that we are not so smart that someone else may have a better idea than we do.
Maine also has the opportunity, courtesy of Mt Trashmore in Bangor and it’s biogas pipeline to the University’s heating plane, the opportunity to see if any kind of biogas opportunity can be found out of either Juniper Ridge or Millinocket and duplicated. If ‘gas’ is being proposed so strongly, and it is if you look around in the Bangor, Hampden, Old Town and Veazie area’s, then isin’t it time that we all started to work toward a common solution using the resources available to us instead of constantly whining and crying ?
There’s a power dam in Camden. Joe Sawyer ran it for years before his death.
Here’s info on one that was rebuilt in Waterville.
http://bancroftcontracting.com/portfolio-items/union-gas-dam-waterville/
Without getting into a poo-pooing contest Sir, does it generate ANY POWER that’s sold in Maine ?
The electrons are all added to the same grid. Good luck tracing back the ones you are using right now to their source of origin whether it be a coal-fired plant, a wind turbine on Mars Hill, a hydrodam or never-never land. :)
Mars hill sells to Canada. Check out Madison Maine.
Please show me where in Maine an industrial wind farm is owned by Mainer’s. Even our former Governor A. King had to bring in Yale University to own his Record Hill Wind. The PUC record shows that 48% of Maine’s Class One Renewables are located out of state. So any argument of using only domestic sources is hollow. Turning down this bill will allow the PUC to approve any and all premium rate contracts on new wind farms which will raise electric rates.
The only reason Fitts opposed this bill was due to his personal financial interest in protecting high priced wind farms.
Ah, Canada, that great Satan of the North.
The current Minority Report of this bill (LD 1863) is written to limit how much electricity can come from generators over 100 MW, and so that any contract must provide rate benefits to Maine ratepayers. Doesn’t seem to evil, really. What’s really going on here is that were protecting uncompetitive Maine generators to please a few special interests. Here’s a potential source for cheaper clean energy and special interest groups like the NRCM are saying “No way, can’t have that!”
Just veto it if you don’t like it. The Legislature hasn’t the backbone to override you.
This is politics .. Michael Thibodeau is behind this. LePages puppet. Last week in the BDN It was also Michael Thibodeau that voted for health insurances to get increases without going to a committee for aproval.
The energy legislation, which is good for Maine rate payers, has been hijacked by the wind industry and their surrogates. LePage haters should not be happy with this state of affairs unless you enjoy paying more for electricity.
We are already hearing lawmakers say in interviews that lowering the
price of electricity would adversely affect the “alternative energy”
schemes we currently are involved in or are working toward.
That is all this is about, pretty simple. High energy prices help lend
some credibility to the “alternatives” being dreamed up and these, of
course, line the pockets of the Lib’s pushing them on us no matter
how inefficient, costly and unpractical they may be.Conversely, lower
energy prices increase the already wide gap between the price of what
we currently(pun intended) have available for energy options and the
alternatives that we are working toward which are all loaded with
subsidies, kick backs and hand outs.
The Lib/progressives not only do not mind high energy prices, they are
actively involved in making/keeping these prices high. From our
President and his appointees down to our locally elected Lawmakers, we
know this to be true and have examples of them telling us so.
Pretty simple , no?
Some people say “get over it”. These are the same idiots who don’t have to pay for electricity because it’s “FREE” and don’t have a clue. We pay for our electricity so anything you can do to lowert it, would be greatly appreciated. By the way, can we drill fo oil in Maine? We sure need to find a way to lower our gas cost as well as our heating oil. We have a President who doesn’t care what fossil fuel cost because he wants us to use electric cars. He is behind the reason why our energy cost are so darn high. Governor, please do all you can to lower these energy cost.
Dream on LePage. Lower energy prices in Maine will never happen. All Maine’s energy needs belong to For Profit Foreign Corporations.
“It’s not that the liberal left are ignorant, it’s just that
much of what they know is not true.”
Just another daily attack on our Governor.
Don’t worry, his power will be completely gone in November.
So Lepage is unhappy just because the BDN says so? Did Lepage say anything about this? BDN, you guys are slacking! Where is his statement?
Yeah, not even one statement from anyone quoted on this in the article and somehow it is concluded he is unhappy? What if the man is ticked off? What if he is rippin’ mad instead? BDN can only get readers these days if they actually publish something that makes it sound like LePage is not getting his way or people are against him etc. When LePage is done I am not sure how else the media is going to attract readers….
I’m going to make a statement: LePage is comfortably numb due to the recent change in the bill. Because I said it.
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The problem at the heart of this is our good Governor is being thwarted by three members of the joint Utilities, Energy and Technology Committee who have connections to the wind industry. It’s like Kurt Adams redux.
OH, their names?
John Hinck
Stacey Fitts
Alex Du Houx
Details here:
http://www.windtaskforce.org/photo/abstain-for-maine?
Stacy Fitts, John Hinck, Alex Du Houx = WIND INDUSTRY = your taxes
Minority Report on L.D. 1863 should be passed. EUT committee tell them…..
Moratorium is next resort. I hope. Please Governor..
Don’t forget Sen. Phil Bartlett.
And when was the last time you saw a happy LePage. This guy is terminally unhappy.
Wow, somebody must be pretty thin skinned to have my joke removed !
Any energy bill that introduces competition into the market place will drive down energy prices, and this will help Maine businesses and Maine people. The playing field should be leveled for all energy producers. Hydro power is renewable, clean, and much cheaper than other renewables. Senator Mike Thiboudeau’s Minority Report on L.D. 1863 should be passed.
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Without intense psychiatric therapy…. will poor Governor LePage ever be happy about anything ? Let us all pray for a lifting of his spirit !
I’ll pray for a lifting of his fat a** out of office
Get used to it Governor. This is not a one person show. The balance may shift in November.
What is wrong with Pau Lepage?
What is wrong with Paul Lepage?
For a State that makes more energy than it uses,why do we put up with higher prices? Renewable energy has its place, but it should not be allowed to influence the price paid by the consumer. More demand should put the price down, instead we are paying more to cover the cost of required “renewable sources” of energy. Governor LePage is doing the right thing by raising the cap on hydro and making wind power stand in the same room as every other form of energy. Why should the wind power industry be given “special ” allowances and not compete on an equal base in the energy market? LePage and Fletcher are on the right path by creating even ground of competition for all energy production.
This is very simple. The governor’s bill would have done nothing more than provide an additional source of potentially cheaper clean energy. But, in the unending quest to sustain artificial markets, several members of the EUT Committee have worked tirelessly to see that Maine ratepayers continue to serve a special interest sector of the electric industry, rather than vice versa.