Evolution of Maine’s Electric Utility Industry
1975-1995
Carroll R. Lee
Richard C. Hill
"During the past two decades, dramatic changes have occurred in Maine’s electric utility industry, planning for power supply, and regulation of electric utilities. The predictions of the 1970s and early 1980s of energy supply shortages and high oil prices have not proven accurate. But energy policies were implemented based upon those predictions. Maine’s electric utilities and their customers were burdened with very high power supply costs due to high-cost QF (Qualifying Facilities = small, renewable fueled (biomass, refuse, and hydro) power plants) contracts and diminished electricity demand caused by high electric prices, electricity conservation, and fuel switching."
" Maine’s electric utilities have responded to these competitive changes in several ways. First, significant efforts have been undertaken by electric utilities to reduce their cost structure, including the buyout of high-cost QF contracts. In many cases, the cost of just operating these QFs has exceeded the total cost of replacement power supply, which allows the utility to buy out the owners of such facilities and still achieve net savings. These new pressures also caused electric utilities to reduce employment by hundreds of employees and implement substantial changes to business processes."
Full Report : https://legislature.maine.gov/testimony/resources/EUT20250410MCKAY1...
U.S. Sen Angus King
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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-- Mahatma Gandhi
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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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