An energy economist, Richard Silkman, has been recently distilling a 98-page plan to make Maine a zero-carbon state by 2050.

It relies on a large-scale shift from fossil fuels to an expanded electricity grid powered mainly by new renewables. His main selling point? While the grid upgrades and investments in new generation and storage would cost nearly $60 billion over that period, the entire project should not cost more over time…

Bait and switch : Rebates on heat pumps and immediately raise the price on electricity

                          Rebates on electric cars and immediately raise the price of electricity.

 Europe’s Electric Vehicle Charging Prices to Increase Substantially…

The report was neither accurate nor balanced, a company spokesperson says.

Regardless of how readers may feel about the New England Clean Energy Connect project — the line that would transmit renewable, hydroelectricity from Quebec to the New England power grid — I think everyone can agree that accurate and balanced reporting is necessary in evaluating the opportunities the project represents.

I am writing in response…

Maine on target to meet near-term greenhouse gas emissions goals

New estimates of how much carbon Maine forests store indicate that achieving carbon neutrality will be easier than hitting Gov. Mills’ robust emissions targets for 2050.

....................Scientists also provided the first concrete…

LD 1634    An Act To Create the Maine Clean Energy Fund and To Authorize a General Fund Bond Issue To Capitalize the Fund

Sec. A-1. Authorization of bonds. The Treasurer of State is authorized, under  the direction of the Governor, to issue bonds in the name and on behalf of the State in an  amount not exceeding…

Looks to me like this is just another piece of propaganda for the wind and solar developers to ram their expensive products down Mainers' throats, particularly when real clean energy sources such as big hydro and nuclear are rejected out of hand by groups like NRCM.

Read the whole thing at the following weblink:…

The DEP will have a public meeting from 6 to 8 pm in the Clifton meeting room. The Silver Maple application can be accessed on the DEP website. Comments can be sent to Jessica Damon or be made at the meeting. This is a 20 mw facility as compared to the 9 mw facility already on Pisgah Mountain. The turbines will be 4.0 mw as compared to the 1.9 existing turbines. The height of the towers will be much higher and the cumulative impact on the natural resources of…

By Lora Whelan | The Quoddy Tides | January 24, 2020 | quoddytides.com ~~

Over 60 Washington County residents gathered on the afternoon of January 9 for the first of two public hearings held by the county commissioners in the county courthouse in Machias to discuss the Washington County Downeast Wind Municipal Development and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District. Commission Chair Chris Gardner explained that the commissioners have no jurisdiction over planning and zoning concerns…

Vermont has a Comprehensive Energy Plan, CEP. The capital cost for implementing the CEP would be in excess of $1.0 BILLION PER YEAR FOR AT LEAST 33 YEARS, according to the Energy Action Network annual report.

https://outside.vermont.gov/sov/webservices/Shared%20Documents/2016CEP_Final.pdf

The CEP projects plug-ins and EVs as shown in table 1.

The…

This article is wrong on so many levels.

Maine has the potential to power itself through wind

.......As of 2018, Maine was harvesting 923 megawatts of wind-generated power, meeting 21 percent of the state’s overall power needs of 4,615 megawatts. “There is plenty of wind in Maine,” Thaler said. “Does Maine have the potential to meet its own energy needs through wind power? The short answer is yes.”..................…

Vermont has a Comprehensive Energy Plan, CEP. The capital cost for implementing the CEP would be in excess of $1.0 billion/y for at least 33 years, according to the Energy Action Network annual report. See URLs.

http://eanvt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/EAN-2015-Annual-Report-Low-Res-Final.pdf …

Sweeping “minimum offer” rule will likely cut into the competitive edge for renewables as a hedge against fossil fuels.

Motions filed this week are asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to change a ruling that could price many renewables out of the PJM capacity market, while driving up prices for consumers.

FERC’s Minimum Offer Price Rule, or MOPR, calls for PJM to set minimum bids for state-subsidized electricity generators in those auctions. The rule…

.................Blittersdorf cites a hostile political climate for his recent decision, and he credits Gov. Phil Scott, who campaigned on opposing industrial wind development in 2016, as the main force behind this new reality.

“In 2012 there were over a dozen wind projects in development. Now there are none,” he said. “This is truly a sad state of affairs for Vermont. Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time. We must combat the carbon emissions crisis and move to a…

Do Renewable Portfolio Standards Deliver?

https://bfi.uchicago.edu/working-paper/do-renewable-portfolio-standards-deliver/

This working paper from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago finds that average retail electricity prices in states after the passage of a renewable energy mandate are 11 percent higher after seven years and 17 percent higher…

It's curious that there's no mention in this article that the turbines would be spread out on three sides of the 7,000-plus acre Great Heath the largest peatland in the state and an area the state protects. See earlier post:…

Excerpts from the speech are below. See links at bottom of this post for the full speech. Note that there is no reference in the speech to onshore wind. Onshore wind has become a very controversial topic since it was first rammed down Mainers' throats over 10 years ago. Many politicians will thus avoid its mention. However, mere avoidance of referring to onshore wind in politicians' speeches should not cause anyone to drop their guard. The threat continues to be real and various areas are…

Young people without insider connections must leave Maine to find decent work while the lunatics running the asylum steadily waste tax dollars to further destroy competitiveness.

                                            

Electric school buses latest stop on Maine’s climate-change journey

Just like cars, e-buses are more expensive than their internal-combustion peers – $300,000 or so compared with less than $150,000. Range is an issue, too. Today’s batteries…