Another top official has left Gov. Paul LePage’s administration.
Steven McGrath, who led the Governor’s Energy Office since August 2017, left that job on Friday. Angela Monroe will move up from deputy director to run the office during the final months of departing LePage’s administration.
While pushing for lower energy costs has been a LePage priority, his efforts to add a Cabinet-level energy commissioner fell apart in partisan squabbling with Democrats in the Legislature.
Past directors of the energy office have been the public face of LePage’s policy initiatives that include trying to bring Canadian hydro power to Maine, thwart wind and solar energy pilot projects that pass along research and development costs to consumers, and pipe more natural gas to Maine. But the governor has leaned heavily on solar power critic Jim LaBrecque, who is now a Republican candidate for a Maine Senate seat in Greater Bangor, for energy advice.
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