GOP push to end Maine solar subsidies, but lawmaker says it’s unlikely

GOP push to end Maine solar subsidies, but lawmaker says it’s unlikely

How much to pay solar power developers has been an issue in Augusta for years and has emerged again as costs soar for some businesses.
February 28, 2025
Stephen Singer
Portland Press Herald

EXCERPTS
Republicans in the Maine Legislature on Thursday urged the repeal of solar and other clean energy subsidies they say are driving up the cost of electricity for Mainers, while supporters of the so-called net energy billing program say it cost effectively advances zero-emissions energy.
“A job-killing solar tax. That is what many companies across our state are calling Maine’s solar development subsidy program, otherwise known as net energy billing,” Sen. Stacey Guerin, R-Penobscot, a sponsor of one of four bills to end the program, told the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee.
Her constituents and other residents and businesses in Maine “are already having a hard time keeping the lights on,” she said. “They cannot afford the increases to their electric bills caused by this solar tax.”
However, the committee’s top Republican said it’s unlikely majority Democrats will agree to repeal the net energy billing program and may instead agree to compromise legislation.
Rebecca Schultz, senior advocate for climate and clean energy at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said the Republican legislation would end rooftop solar, barring the technology to individuals and households.
The “biggest culprits behind rising electricity bills are fossil fuels and the climate change impacts they are causing — not solar energy,” she told lawmakers..........................................
...............................The debate in Augusta over solar subsidies and net energy billing is not new. Net energy billing is intended to encourage renewable power generation, providing generators with credit for renewable power they produce and send to the electric grid.
Before 2019, eligibility was restricted to small generators, reflecting opposition from then-Gov. Paul LePage and many Republican lawmakers. The rules changed in 2019, following the election of Gov. Janet Mills and fellow Democrats in the Legislature. One provision directed utilities to buy power at fixed rates from larger solar projects with up to 5 megawatts of capacity.............................................

..........................Jason Woollard, an Aroostook County potato grower who farms 15,000 acres of crops in a family business dating to 1886, told lawmakers his business added a potato processing plant in the last few years. Net energy billing policies “are killing our business,” he said, with a $690,000-a- year bill for electricity as part of a public policy charge.
“Our competitors don’t have to pay that,” he said.........................................

Full article: https://www.pressherald.com/2025/02/28/republicans-push-to-end-main...

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