Long Islander's Blog – May 2015 Archive (28)

Decisions by executives with the Friends of Maine's Mountains raised ethical questions that attracted unusual scrutiny by the Attorney General's Office.

127th MAINE LEGISLATURE

NOTICE OF CONFIRMATION HEARING

JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON ENERGY, UTILITIES AND…

By Mary Kay Barton -- May 7, 2015

Industrial wind is a net loser, economically, environmentally, technically and civilly. Let’s examine how......

https://www.masterresource.org/windpower/wind-loser/

and

Governor LePage Wants Energy Policy Changes

Energy policy can be an incredibly complicated endeavor. But…

Scenic Impact - LD 911 and parts of EUT's LD 1329 at ENR Worksession Today, 5/14/15 at 1:00 PM

The Joint Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources will be reviewing sections 8-16 of LD 1329 at its work session today on LD 911 (wind bill in ENR) with the possibility of including any of those sections as amendments to LD 911. The Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology will hold a work session on LD 1329 next (the schedule will be out on…

PORTLAND, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage has two persistent frustrations with energy in Maine and New England: Hydro-rich Quebec and gas-rich Pennsylvania aren’t that far away as the crow flies, but those energy sources can’t get here from there.…

The article notes how President George W. Bush was an early supporter of wind, but fails to disclose his ties to the company that helped start the whole fraud, Enron.

Posted May. 13, 2015 at 2:48 PM

KENNEBUNK - The Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club will present a short documentary entitled "Scaling Wind," along with a talk on "Renewable Energy: Benefits and Costs," by David Littell, Maine PUC Commissioner, at 7 p.m.…

Agriculture Conservation & Forestry/State and Local Government Committee Room (ACF/SLG)   …

The USFWS recommends that new wind energy development should be sited outside of an 8-km buffer zone around active leks in prairie grouse habitat (Manville 2004). Our results show that both male and female Greater Prairie-Chickens have negative behavioral responses to wind energy development within 8 km of turbines (Winder et al. 2014b, present study). Lek persistence was also affected by habitat and number of males. Further work is needed to test for lag effects and to explore how wind…

The state high court overturned a lower court ruling Thursday that had chastised the Department of Environmental Protection’s commissioner for loosening noise requirements for the island’s wind turbines.

http://bangordailynews.com/2015/05/08/news/midcoast/state-high-court-overturns-ruling-clears-dep-in-island-wind-case/

The omnibus energy bill passed in 2013 authorized the Maine Public Utilities Commission to have the state’s investor-owned electric utilities buy up to $75 million in natural gas capacity annually from a pipeline company, for up to 20 years.

The PUC is still evaluating proposals from the different companies, against power price forecasts it commissioned from various consulting groups......…

Portland energy company opening Irish facility

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/05/06/local-energy-company-opening-irish-facility/

Angus King's legislation could dramatically alter distributed energy markets nationwide. Does it stand a chance?
By Gavin Bade | May 6, 2015

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/maine-senator-unveils-unprecedented-federal-distributed-energy-bill/394599/

During its 2007 session, the Maine Legislature enacted an Act to Stimulate Demand for Renewable Energy.  This Act established a new "Class I" standard, requiring Maine electricity suppliers to source specified percentages of their electricity from “new” renewable resources...........

http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/report-on-maine-renewable-portfolio-stan-30718/

Also…

 “I value a commission that is independent and objective, and I’m looking at the economics of the choices and are they cost-effective and what’s the impact on the economy and the effect on ratepayers.”…

"Maine already has the highest renewable portfolio in the nation and only two states' electricity sectors have lower CO2 emissions than Maine," O'Connor said. "We are doing great at being clean - now it's time to be smart."

And, she said, there's more. "This repeals the zone changes that made wind energy a permitted use," O'Connor said. "Thousands of residents choose to live in parts of Maine where, in 2008, a zoning decision that was made in Augusta - they lost their ability to…

Elin Katz, a Connecticut consumer official, said winter 2015 electricity prices averaged 17.34 cents a kilowatt hour across New England compared to a 12.81-cent average across the three states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Malloy said the price spikes collectively added about $7.5 billion to the region’s electricity tab over the last two winters and LePage said the high costs put the region at a competitive disadvantage.…

Don't let the door hit you on the way out Mr. Littell.

By Darren Fishell, BDN Staff

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Posted May 05, 2015, at 7:55 p.m.…

The announcement of the study came just two hours ahead of a hearing on a bill, LD 1329, before the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, that seeks to dramatically rewrite Maine laws aimed at helping wind energy grow in a way that opponents of wind development say would better factor in the rights of Mainers who own property near wind farms....

(Maine Sierra Club): “Despite its misleading and rather Orwellian title, LD 1329 is clearly designed to minimize, if not…