Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting on Maine Public Utilities Commission
Following are links to select articles from the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting which provide coverage of or related to the Maine PUC. The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is a nonpartisan, non-profit news service based in Augusta focused on in-depth reporting serving the need of the Maine's citizens to be fully informed about the actions of their government and public servants.
With regard to the Maine PUC their mission (as published on their website) is:
"Mission: The Maine Public Utilities Commission regulates electric, gas, telephone and water utilities to ensure that Maine citizens have access to safe and reliable utility services at rates that are just and reasonable for all ratepayers".
http://www.maine.gov/mpuc/about/how_commission_works.shtml
Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting - Select Articles in Chronological Order
PUC chairman took equity stake in wind company
| May 6, 2010
Group asks AG to probe official of First Wind
| July 18, 2010
First Wind SEC filing change questioned
| July 18, 2010
Adams Investigation Finds No Conflict
| July 18, 2010
PUC staff: no-go for energy firms’ wind deal
| January 19, 2012
PUC releases confidential transcript in wind energy case
| January 31, 2012
Multi-million-dollar wind deal approved by state regulators
| April 11, 2012
Utility regulators used broad authority in approving wind deal
| April 17, 2012
Energy firms announced deal despite risk posed by legal appeal
| June 27, 2012
High court overrules agency OK of multi-million-dollar wind energy ...
| March 4, 2014
PUC ponders what’s next for multimillion-dollar wind deal vacated b...
| March 21, 2014
Public advocate reverses position on giant wind energy deal
| May 5, 2014
LePage, utilities commissioner at odds over ethics
| June 5, 2014
State utility regulators approve giant wind deal — again
| July 22, 2014
LePage, utilities commissioner conflict over conflicts only partial...
| July 30, 2014
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Comment
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Comment by Dan McKay on February 7, 2015 at 10:51am
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PUC Commissioner Vannoy's statement in his dissent of long term contracts with Highland Wind Project near Bingham Maine : " the ISO New England has recently approved market changes which allow for significant negative pricing in the wholesale energy market. It is unclear how this will affect specific pricing nodes. It is likely that generators with long-term contracts which clear on remote nodes will have incentives to bid negative at times in order to be dispatched. This effect is difficult to quantify and because of the new rule there is not adequate historic market data to make future predictions of what these effects will be on the ability to obtain value for the proposed contracts. The term sheets in question do not adequately protect ratepayers from these effects. "
This is what Commissioner Vannoy is worried about : "Since wind and solar projects generally have low marginal costs of production, it is in the interest of project owners with fixed-price contracts to keep their plants operating regardless of the market price. This incentive is particularly strong for projects that are eligible for tax credits or renewable energy credits that are tied to production. Utilities have different incentives: when the market price falls below the contract’s fixed price, the utility has a negative contribution to margin for each unit of energy purchased under the fixed-price power contract, meaning that it is generally in the interest of the utility to curtail purchases from the project."
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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