Governor Mills on Energy in Address to the Legislature Yesterday

Excerpts from the governor's 2/11/19 address to the legislature:

The world is changing. We need to define Maine’s place in the new world.

We will work with the private sector and with groups like the Maine Development Foundation to identify our state’s many assets and build upon them to foster and attract:

  • Sustainable farming, diversified fisheries and innovative forest products businesses
  • Clean energy producers
  • High tech industries
  • Data centers
  • Places for people to work remotely, and
  • A quality of life that will attract young working families back to our state.

Climate change is a priority issue. Our Office of Policy Innovation and the Future is preparing a climate agenda which I will announce in the coming weeks.

Suffice it to say, we will make every effort, without additional general fund dollars:

  • to assist the University of Maine in the research and development of offshore wind power;
  • to provide incentives for community and residential solar power;
  • to promote energy efficiency and weatherization;
  • to increase the use of heat pumps;
  • to build charging stations and incentives for electric vehicles;
  • and to help local and state government become “green.”

Right now, Hannah Pingree, who leads the Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, is working with Efficiency Maine to develop a program to promote the installation of 100,000 heat pumps in businesses and houses by 2025.

That alone would save $30 to $60 million annually in heating bills, and lower carbon emissions by 100,000 to 200,000 metric tons a year and wean our state off fossil fuels. We look forward to unveiling the details of this effort shortly.

The full address can be read at:

https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/news/governor-janet-mills-stat...

‘Green’ youth putting adults to shame (PPH)

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/02/10/letter-to-the-editor-green-y...

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Comment by Art Brigades on February 12, 2019 at 1:36pm

Hanna Pingree has defended grid scale wind based on her Vinalhaven experience.  But hold on a minute. People on Vinalhaven are quaintly primitive by choice.  Vinalhaven was a step or two above 3rd world status: cut off from the mainland by miles of water, rationing everything from water to trash to food, generating 40 cent electricity with diesel engines, etc.  Aside from the folks who had to vacate their homes, the island didn't do terribly with their three wind turbines. But that doesn't mean wind is a fit for the rest of Maine. With a population of 1150, Vinalhaven has one turbine for every 385 residents.  If Maine had one turbine for every 385 residents, we would have 3400 turbines.  With 400 presently, it's difficult to stand on any 2000' vista in Maine without seeing turbines.  Where would we put 3000 more? Hanna has the reputation of being very smart.  Here's hoping she gets smart about her new job.

Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on February 12, 2019 at 12:20pm

Governor Mills' goal of attracting data centers might have some merit based on the fact that data centers, which generate tremendous heat, can save money on air conditioning by being located in cold climates. However, these data centers use very large amounts of electricity which tends to be very expensive in the northeast compared to the rest of the country. One would think that to attract data centers, Maine would have to take every step possible to lower its energy costs. Lowering energy costs is not compatible with the governor's other goals of increasing wind and solar. Will the governor work with the Trump administration to stop Massachusetts from blocking interstate natural gas pipeline into Maine?

Comment by Long Islander on February 12, 2019 at 10:30am

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-ro...

Comment by Dan McKay on February 12, 2019 at 10:11am

Considering that the "  Office of Policy Innovation and the Future "  is a brand new agency, our taxes are already paying the favors of wind and solar lobbyists.

  • "to assist the University of Maine in the research and development of offshore wind power." 
  •  Is Cianbro funding this and offering power at wholesale market costs ?
  • "to provide incentives for community and residential solar power"
  • Obviously, an attack on our electric bills
  • "to promote energy efficiency and weatherization
  • More money for Efficiency Maine Trust, an unaccountable state agency.
  • to increase the use of heat pumps;
  • Same as immediate above, see Willem 's Post  on heat pumps in cold weather states.
  • to build charging stations and incentives for electric vehicles
  • What electric vehicles ?  The ones the rich people own ?
  • and to help local and state government become “green.”
  • More charges to help one government agency fund other government agencies with other people's money
Comment by John F. Hussey on February 12, 2019 at 10:04am

YAWN!!!  Offshore wind... twice as expensive and twice as expensive to maintain.  One good hurricane will take care of that crap! 

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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