Janet Mills: Create Maine Energy Commissioner Cabinet Post to Promote 100% Renewable Energy

September 20, 2018

Candidates for Governor Discuss Their Positions on Energy & the Environment

Three candidates for governor — Democrat Janet Mills and independents Terry Hayes and Alan Caron — discussed their positions on energy and the environment at a forum sponsored by the Environmental & Energy Technology Council of Maine (E2Tech) last week at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. Republican Shawn Moody declined to attend, just as Gov. Paul LePage blew off the last E2Tech gubernatorial debate in 2014.

Attorney General Janet Mills said she accepts the scientific consensus that climate change is caused by human activities and she will support policies to mitigate it, including setting a state goal of switching to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.

“I believe that by 2050 we can transition to a healthy and prosperous economy relying virtually entirely on renewable energy. That’s my goal,” said Mills. “Solar, onshore wind, offshore wind and eventually good battery storage as well as energy efficiency will get us there.”

She said the first thing she would do as governor would be to establish a cabinet-level post of Maine Energy Commissioner with the mission of reducing costs for Maine ratepayers and promoting sustainable energy ............................................... Terry Hayes said her first priority would be to identify what Maine is doing about climate change and figure out what the state has the power to change. “I think our place in this broader planet is really important to recognize and that we take responsibility for changing those things that we can, focused around our future around our natural resources,” she said. “Global warming is at the top of the list.”......................................................................................Alan Caron said he would also set a goal that Maine switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 by providing financial incentives to solar and offshore wind power...............................................

More here:

https://freepressonline.com/Content/Home/Homepage-Rotator/Article/C...

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September 14, 2018

Maine governor candidates square off on energy, economy in E2Tech forum

Although this article discusses Mills, Hayes and Caron (Moody skipped this one) supporting solar and offshore wind, there is no reference to any discussion about land based wind. In the absence of additional information, I do not think one can assume from this that they will not be supportive of land based wind.

Three candidates in Maine's governor's race offered their visions for the state's energy future at a Portland debate, which Republican Shawn Moody didn't attend.

Thursday's 90-minute forum, organized by the Environmental & Energy Council of Maine, or E2Tech as it's better known, came three days after all four candidates had their first debate in Lewiston. They are running to succeed Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, who has been in office since 2011.

Moody campaign manager Lauren LePage said in an email to Mainebiz that the candidate is participating in 11 debates and forums that includes multiple televised debates covering every part of Maine, without giving a reason for Thursday's absence.

"Shawn is committed to developing a comprehensive energy strategy for Maine that focuses on reducing electricity costs for Maine families and job creators, and embraces cost-effective renewable energy sources," she said.

Democrat Janet Mills, Maine's attorney general, and independent Alan Caron both said that they would support solar power, which Caron called the "disruptive technology of our time" and Mills pointed to as an industry that attracts young people to a state.

Mills said her top energy priorities would include establishing a cabinet-level energy commissioner, reducing costs for ratepayers and increasing capacity of solar power, which employs fewer than 600 people in Maine versus 14,000 in Massachusetts.

"We need to compete," she said, not just to reduce Maine's carbon footprint, but also to bring young people back to Maine.

Mills had similarly strong words about Maine lagging behind Massachusetts and New Jersey in attracting offshore wind power investment, saying she wants to be "the promoter in chief, the recruiter in chief, the closer in chief" when it comes to getting energy contracts in Maine. She's also keen on ramping up research and development spending, where she said Maine ranks 37th in the country.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.mainebiz.biz/article/20180914/NEWS01/180919960

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Comment by arthur qwenk on September 20, 2018 at 8:13pm

Politicians are politicians frequently because they are basic scientific cretins,but indeed,a significant percentage of the public needs remedial science. Were it not so,the thermodynamics of renewables would prohibit their grid scale applications . The power density of present " renewable" technologies just is not there to power modernity. The reality of cost benefit analysis  demonstrates that you can't  mess with mother nature,or physics and the need for dense energy.

The groupthink non-science based general public will be financially milked continually until this issue becomes science based and not subsidy and politcally based.

Comment by Penny Gray on September 20, 2018 at 6:17pm

Here's a short story about solar.  I bought a used 5 cubic foot chest freezer for ten bucks a few weeks ago to keep my dog meat frozen during this last hot spell.  I plugged it in and loaded it with four forty pound cases of chicken legs, partially frozen.  In two days my battery bank, ten six volt golf cart batteries wired for twelve volt, were down to 12.4 volts and this was on sunny days using four 120 watt solar panels in mid September.  I unplugged the freezer and started the generator, something I never do until November, because the rule of thumb with solar is, don't run your batteries down below 80% of charge.  If we can't send the politicians to school to get a decent science based education, they should live the life they preach for a year.  Incidentally, the only other things powered by my battery bank are my submersible water pump, LED lights, my laptop and, on sunny days, my vacuum cleaner.  And even then I use the generator from November to May, two hours a day, to keep the battery bank healthy.  So I'm not living 100% renewables because my refrigerator, stove and hot water heater all run on propane.  How in the hell can these people actually talk about functioning on 100% renewable energy when they exclude hydro?  If nuclear isn't a part of the discussion, they're just blowing smoke.  And that's the last thing the environment needs more of.

Comment by Penny Gray on September 20, 2018 at 6:09pm

These politicians need to go back to school and take physics.  Common sense, sadly, cannot be taught.

Comment by John F. Hussey on September 20, 2018 at 10:17am

" Like Mills, Caron said he would also set a goal that Maine switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 by providing financial incentives to solar and offshore wind power."  "...setting a state goal of switching to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. 

Let me repeat. "..by providing financial incentives to solar and offshore wind power..." OUT OF THEIR  MIND but still trying to PICK OUR POCKETS!! 

Comment by Stephen Littlefield on September 14, 2018 at 4:06pm

Yeah, Mills is talking about making her ole pal Baldacci a lot more money with her wind power BS! And the ratepayers will suffer under extraordinary rates and it will drive people out and young people away! She is the quintessential leftist, don't look behind the curtain I'm not really who I seem!

Comment by John F. Hussey on September 14, 2018 at 3:32pm

 E2Tech is all about renewables AT ANY COST, Shawn was smart to stay away.  Not one of the three candidates appears to have a single brain cell of knowledge with respect to "renewables". The only cost effective renewable 24/7/365 is HYDRO.  Generation IV MSR/LFTR Nuclear will be deployed within 10 years and make large scale Wind and Solar useless!  

Solar can be useful if the installation is on or near the building or location it serves.  Grid scale solar is STUPID and wasteful!  Wind generators, wind farms, are a very expensive, an unreliable energy sources, STUPID and wasteful.  Offshore wind HAHAHAHAHA beyond STUPID!

 

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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