AUGUSTA, Maine — Ever since one of the Gov. Paul LePage’s energy bills was amended and then voted out by a majority of lawmakers on the Energy Committee, his energy director and others have been working hard to return the bill to its original intent.
So far, Kenneth Fletcher, the director of the Office of Energy Independence, has been unsuccessful, but Senate leaders have continued to defer action on the bill to let him and others continue to lobby.
Eventually, LD 1863 will have to be voted on since the legislative session is scheduled to wrap up by the end of next week. That leaves little time to bring any Senate Republicans back into the governor’s corner.
LD 1863 is one of four energy bills submitted by the governor this session, but it’s the one for which he has pushed the hardest.
The bill as drafted was simple. It would lift the 100-megawatt cap for qualifying renewable power generation — particularly hydropower. This would allow Maine to buy low-cost energy that meets the renewable energy standard, thereby reducing energy costs for businesses and homeowners.
In the majority report approved the Energy Committee, the bill directs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to submit a request for proposals and then make determinations about whether the 100-megawatt cap should be lifted.
Sen. Phil Bartlett, D-Gorham, said the majority report should appeal to Republicans because it creates market competition.
Fletcher, however, said this week that the majority report creates a scenario by which energy providers would have to go through an exhaustive and drawn-out process that might fail to result in a deal. He said that would encourage them to look elsewhere.
Sen. Chris Rector, R-Thomaston, Rep. Stacy Fitts, R-Pittsfield, and all six Democrats on the Energy Committee voted for the majority report.
The remaining five Republicans offered a minority report that is closer to the bill’s original language. It would authorize the PUC to enter into contracts for electricity above 100-megawatts if it is priced at least 10 percent less than the applicable market rate.
Fletcher and the governor want the minority report to pass. In fact, shortly after LePage returned from a vacation in Jamaica last week, he blasted lawmakers for rewriting his bill and blamed special interest groups for the changes.
“I do not support Augusta being in the business of increasing costs on Maine ratepayers to pad the pockets of special interest groups,” he said in a statement last Friday. “I believe it is morally and ethically wrong to take more money from those who can least afford it to line the pockets of those that are politically connected here in Augusta.”
The governor also directed comments at the eight lawmakers who voted against his initial bill.
“I encourage constituents to call legislators who voted against this bill and ask them if they are concerned about the rising cost of energy hurting working families and small businesses. If they are, ask them to change their vote,” he said.
The Republicans have a 19-16 edge in the Senate, so it would take only two GOP senators to approve the majority report and go against the governor.
Rector and Sen. Thomas Saviello, R-Wilton, appear to be firmly against against the original bill. Sen. Michael Thibodeau, R-Winterport, who led the minority report in the Energy Committee, is considering a floor amendment, according to staff in the Senate Republicans office.
As it stands, LD 1863 is on the Senate calendar and could come up at any time.
It’s not clear what will happen to the bill when it goes to the House. Fitts supports the majority report but said he doesn’t know how many of his fellow Republicans are with him.
LePage actually called out Fitts by name on Saturday during a radio interview in which he said Fitts “making his living off wind,” a claim Fitts denied.
The Pittsfield representative works for Kleinschmidt Associates, an engineering and consulting firm that focuses on energy and water issues. While the firm has clients involved in wind energy, that is a small part of what Kleinschmidt does, Fitts said.
Follow BDN reporter Eric Russell on Twitter @BDNPolitics.
The Governor happens to be dead on correct with this bill and anything else is because lobbyists have bought legislators.
Unless you think it’s good for Mainers to pay higher prices for electricity than they need to.
15 special interest biomass and wind companies representing less than 1% of the state’s businesses. Or 100,000 other businesses who would get slapped with higher rates? Which will it be? Who is represented? People or a tiny handful of lobbyist-rich corporations?
I’m certainly in favor of lower energy costs, just as long as we are not sending our money to Canada for it. Maine money needs to stay in Maine.
WIND money is going to massachusetts and King Angus.
Maine has Irvings everywhere. Home base? = New Brunswick Canada.
Hydro Quebec will more than likely supply Mass rather than the feeble energy from thousands of Wind turbines all over our state.
Hydro is GREEN.
Also to Angus King’s partner, the equally elitist and fraudulent hypocrite Yale Endowment Fund.
Maine money will stay in Maine when businesses are not forced out because of high electrical rates
Should we reject the natural gas from Canada that has reduced my heating costs in Brewer by about 60%?
But you would be okay with sending the money out of state and out of the country using wind power? Remember, most of the companies building and operating wind projects in Maine are not Maine companies.
Gov. LePage is right on with this one…..make it cheaper for residents of Maine…period!
Please tell your senators to vote for the MINORITY report. It is the bill that best serves the interest of hard working Mainers and cuts out special interests who are already living well off corporate welfare.
Spoken like a true progressive – welcome!
And I thought the W. Va. politicians in the pocket of the coal industry were bad, at least we got cheap power for the pollution.
With Fitts we are getting the most expensive electricity made and can only look across the border to see Quebec’s economy booming based on N. America’s cheapest electricity.
With Fitts we also see a direct economic benefit to his employer and their wind partners…which by every ethical law should recuse him from any energy legislation! No wonder Maine’s legislature gets such low marks!
The guy’s an embarrassment to the R’s party and to every voter who expects LePage to live up to his pledges on energy.
FITTS GIVES ME A FIT! ……………dump Fitts now
Hydro is one of the cleanest energies on earth.
Please lift the 100MW ban on hydro.
Massachusetts is needing more and more electricity. WIND = 75% does not blow, 10-30% loss in transmission and sucks 5% from the GRID. WIND is a failure.
Wow this is great i can put up my own personnel wind mill sell power back to the power companies. if anyone thinks this bill is going to make cheaper power they are sadly mistaken all the new oil well being drilled does not make cheaper gas.the people who sponser and the companies that put them up is the only ones chuckling all the way to the bank.Can any one tell me what has gone down in price since all the new wind turbines have been put up? just like the east west highway study somebody make a note and see if the state gets paid back.i wonder how many studies have been done on this since the early 70s.
Reducing electric rates has been one of Governor LePage’s
goals since taking office. During a recent interview with Phil Harriman the governor explained that his bill to eliminate the 100 megawatt cap on hydro generators would save Maine families 10
to 20 percent on their electric rates by allowing Maine to pursue favorable
contracts with Hydro Quebec (HQ). He understands that if HQ provides electricity at competitive prices Maine families and businesses will benefit in these difficult economic times.
Vermont utilities recently signed a 20 year contract with HQ to provide up to 25% of Vermont’s
demand at competitive rates. HQ will share the renewable energy credits it receives with Vermont utilities so that they can use the proceeds to reduce rates for their customers. The plan allows Vermont to take HQ’s power only when it is needed, during peak daytime demand, to supplement Vermont’s existing supply. Maine should pursue a similar strategy.
I applaud Governor LePage’s efforts to reduce electrical rates for Maine families by exploring least cost alternatives, and share his outrage at members of the Utility Committee who would rather protect the highest cost, most heavily subsidized sources.
It is quite clear that the 100 mw ceiling was established for the purpose of favoring wind as a renewable over any other source.
As the absurd RPS requirement increases over time , the need to buy renewable will intensify. Lifting the 100 mw ceiling will relieve artificially created pressure to build new generation. it will prioritize lower cost and lower impact generation.
The minority report on LD 1863 would lift an outdated (and born purely out of favoritism rather than economic reality) legal barrier that has been pushing New England to build new high impact electricity generation when we could access more reliable and less impactful generation that already exists. As a Western mountain resident I cannot imagine that any legislator representing that area would see fit the presence of more than a thousand wind mills scattered across the Maine mountains.
Vermont is a good example of why Maine should remove the 100 MW barrier. Vermont utilities have recently signed long term contracts to get approximately 25% of Vermont’s electricity from Hydro Quebec. Gov. Peter Shumlin, who is a strong advocate for wind power in Vermont, welcomed the Public Service Board’s approval of an agreement he said would mean “clean, reliable, and favorably priced power for Vermonters.” He added, “Hydro-Quebec has been an important partner in Vermont for many years, and will continue to be a key player in Vermont’s energy future.” Vermont utilties can also sell the RECs from their contracts with HQ and split the proceeds with HQ.
Maine’s renewable generation is largely owned by out of state, or foreign entities, so there is little basis for protecting their interests at the expense of higher costs for ratepayers for potentially more expensive in-state generation.
With the failure of Production Tax Credits to be extended by the federal government, there is a heightened risk that RPS mandates will force suppliers to “cover the PTC cost” with higher rates since wind developers are essentially going to have to make up for $22 per MW of lost income. Allowing HQ to fulfill RPS requirements will moderate that risk.
May I have this dance?
A song for our times:
Vindkraftverk:
Green Energy Blues
http://youtu.be/l-yo9CYv1mM
I always think of Martin Luther King’s ” I have a dream” speech when I think of Tidal Power
in Maine.
The 1st part of my dream would be to create a series of bond issues to build a Maine Taxpayer owned
Tidal Power facility in the Bay of Fundy that would hire unemployed Mainers to build and staff the plant
which would provide cheap power to Maine consumers while paying off the bonds with the excess electricity sold out of state.
Then the second part of my dream kicks in.
Nature Bombshell: ‘Past Extreme Warming Events Linked To Massive Carbon Release From Thawing Permafrost’
By Joe Romm on Apr 4, 2012
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/04/04/458570/nature-past-extreme-warming-events-linked-to-massive-carbon-release-from-thawing-permafrost/
Says LePage: ”
“I believe it is morally and ethically wrong to take more money from those who can least afford it to line the pockets of those that are politically connected here in Augusta.”
He truly believes this? Since when?
I am glad le Page is being direct and calling a spade a spade..this bill should be passed to protect Mainers from the special interest groups, hope this bill passes..
While I certainly don’t always agree with Gov. LePage, he’s spot on with this one. Not being able to include larger hydro sources as renewable energy is absolute stupidity and exists in this state today only to favor the wind power industry. There is NO OTHER plausible reason.
I’ve followed the wind power issue very closely for the last 3-4 years, and have attended multiple sessions of the EUT Committee. Without ever looking at the roll call of votes, I can name at least 4 of our legislators who I’m damned sure voted against the governor’s bill.
They are Fitts, Du Houx, Bartlett, and Hink. These four have blindly and consistently without exception, voted to approve every single bill to come across their desks that would favor wind power in this state, and have voted against 99% of the bills that would have in any way, shape or form limited the unprecedented authority and power that the wind lobby has secured over a number of years.
“While the firm has clients involved in wind energy, that is a small part of what Kleinschmidt does,” Fitts said.
HMMM, if it was such a very small % of what they do and unimportant, whey did his employer proudly brag in their annual report a couple years ago that they had an employee in a position of power on the EUT?
A lot of people think Jon Hink is such a strong advocate of wind power because he is still viewed by some as a wacko environmentalist going back to his days of being a founding figure of in the radical environmental group “Greenpeace”. While a little bit of that instinct might still enter his mind, most who know him well enough suspect a very different motivator. His wife, Juliet Browne is a partner at Verrill Dana and has been the lead counsel for multiple large wind power developers in this state. She has raked in literally millions of dollars in fees and profit for her firm. Who do you suppose will be very large contributors to Mr. Hinck’s deluded run for the Senate? First Wind, Reed & Reed, Sargeant Construction … a who’s who in the wind power industry in Maine will support him. That’s speculation right now, but let’s wait and see. The smart money is on a big YES they will.
Du Houx is less dangerous because he commands little respect anywhere, but he does have a vote and his “day job” also has direct ties to promoting wind power – as does his mommy’s blog.
Barlett also profits from his cozy connection to the wind lobby.
People, it’s unfortunate, but the old expression about money and politics is alive and well in the Maine legislature today – “FOLLOW THE MONEY”. It’s such a shame that a few legislators who vote with their personnal wallets tarnish the image of the honest hard working legislators we do have in this state.
Remember that study that was released a couple weeks ago that named Maine as the 46th most politcially corrupt state in the country? Here’s a perfect example in action, right here.
RECs are a wind power scam. It is not a tangible product and can add a considerable profit for wind developers. Dropping this 100 MW limit gives the state of Maine an opportunity to out-scam the scammers ( the wind developers and their friends )
The argument that our money will be going to Canada if we reclassify hydro power as a renewable is moot. Maine doesn”t need the electricty but we could certainly make money shunting that Canadian hydro power to southern New England. Any bill that will lower our electricty rates by increasing competition is well worth looking at, and Canada is about to have a glut of hydro power when that second dam on the Churchill River is built. Industrial wind has the power to bankrupt this state, and that’s not what we need.
Folks you are wrong. Purchasing power from Hydro Quebec will not decrease your bill or any industries bill by one penny. All it would accomplish is to send more money out of the state of Maine and to another country. Stacey Fitts makes his living in the hydro power industry, not the wind industry. His employer pays him a pittance because he is not available to them for most of the year due to his labors in Augusta. The rec’s make little difference in the viability of a clean energy project. Wind has been driven solely by the energy policy act of 2005 and it’s subsequent Production Tax Credits, or Investment Tax Credits. If a project is not on-line by the end of next year, they won’t get them. The wind boom will be over. Hydro is not cheap and has a low plant factor (not as low as wind). Stacey Fitts is right on in his vote and has done what he feels is the best for the people of Maine and I applaud him. If you want cheap power, put in a nuke plant, a gas plant or a coal plant.
The LD 1863 minority reports stipulates that if it doesn’t benefit ratepayers then we don’t buy it. So, what’s the problem? We already going to be sending money out of the state with additional wind power. Maine wind projects are mostly not owned or operated by Maine companies.
and if you think competition will lower your electricity rates…….how did deregulation of the generating work for you?
Email to Stacey Fitts posted right here:
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/email-to-rep-stacey-fitts
With Maine obtaining the unsavory distinction of being one of the most corrupt and non-transparent states in the nation, is it any wonder that unethical corrupt practices from the likes of self-serving Rep. Fitts have occurred?
See ‘F’ in national study means Maine ‘ripe’ for corruption”
By Naomi Schalit, Lance Tapley and John Christie
March 19, 2012 © Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting
http://pinetreewatchdog.org/author/pinetreedog/
The self -serving parasitic leeches of Maine’s corrupt politics get away with their self-serving ways because they know how to scam the system, at the public’s expense.
It is time for this to end.
Mr. LePage is right on here.
We need lower electrical rates in Maine. We need more clean hydro, from anyplace we can get it.
Hopefully the minority report LD-1863 will prevail, and call renewable hydro power, well, renewable!
100mw/hr generators are clearly renewable and must be allowed to compete in the market.
This would lower our rates.
Wind power scamming in Maine’s corrupt political environment is only helping financial self-servers like Angus King and Rep. Fitts of Kleinschmidt Renewables.
While I am not a big fan of Paulie he has this one pretty much on target. Would we all like to see Maine hydro return ? I sure would, given that it would produce power (and revenue) here in-State and keep our electrical power production going as well as helping in keep our river’s under control during the flood’s we get from time to time. But for the time being we’re stuck. I’m in the EMEC area and I for one am almost ready to start looking at any alternative. While I applaud EMEC for keeping their POWER PRODUCTION COST’S low, their delivery rate is 20% above the cost of the actual power ! And I have the bill’s to prove it ! Now, can anyone see something wrong with this ? If Paulie makes the claim that he can deliver power, thru a HQ agreement, at a lower cost, then fine. Show me, with real actual figures, not some bean-counter’s estimate’s, just how he’s gonna do it. I’ll bring my bill and he can bring his plan. Governor, time to put up or shut up. Your move …………
“Sen. Chris Rector, R-Thomaston, Rep. Stacy Fitts, R-Pittsfield, and all six
Democrats on the Energy Committee voted for the majority report.”
It is clear that the purpose of the 100 MW cap on hydro power was originally
put into law to make all electric power more expensive and to insure support for
wind power developers like King.
Fitts makes his living from wind power (says the Governor) so the reason for
his vote is clear and it is unethical, but why did all Democrats on the joint
committee also vote against a measure that would lower electric bills for all of
Maine?