Maine Democrat Policies That Create a Never-ending Lifetime of Expensive Electricity

Don’t expect electricity prices to come down anytime soon in Maine, even with the federal government recission of wind and solar projects and subsidies.

Entrenched in Maine laws are two policies that will cause prices to spike as they are tied to an acceleration of wind, solar and battery installations.

RGGI, a never-ending carbon tax on natural gas-fired, coal and oil-fired electric generating plants, can raise wholesale prices by as much as 30% and with states like Massachusetts setting policies to eliminate fossil fuels from reaching Maine by constructing much needed pipeline upgrades, the carbon tax will naturally follow economic principles that prices increase as allowable emissions of carbon dioxide are lessened each year. This program has no end date; it will never be sunset without cooperation from all New England States.

The troubling aspect of this program is that it is regional, involving all the states enrolled in ISO-NE operations. Even with Maine ending their participation in RGGI, New England wholesale prices will be affected by other states using ISO-NE as the wholesale marketer.

Maine represents just 9% of the ISO-NE market, so Maine is overwhelmed by policies upheld in other New England States.

Nevertheless, Maine can rebate ratepayers of all the costs of RGGI instead of gifting the money over to Efficiency Maine Trust (EMT) to use it to push EVs, EV charging stations and heat pumps. The many years that EMT has promoted energy efficiency as a path to lower electricity costs has proven to be gaslighting propaganda. It favors the few who do not mind taking from others and some of these “few” are very large companies.

During the last legislative session, a proposal to return just some of this RGGI money to ratepayers was rejected by Democrats on the EUT Committee.

The chances of Democratic controlled states in New England undoing RGGI and discontinuing the assault on fossil fuels is next to unthinkable. The only option to escape RGGI costs is to unenroll from ISO-NE, which is not impossible; Maine was an autonomous electricity producer/consumer back before the Angus King Governing years. New Hampshire has tossed around the idea of removal from ISO-NE, recently.

The other policy raising electricity costs is the Renewable Energy Credit boondoggle, where wind, solar and battery projects receive direct payments for every kilowatt hour of generated electricity they produce that enters the grid. Like RGGI, this program has no sunset provision.

The likelihood that Maine is ever going to be totally powered by “renewables” is zero, BUT because this program is ill-conceived to achieve 100% “renewables” by 2040 along with the federal government shutdown policies, Renewable Energy Credit costs will skyrocket.

Everyone knows RGGI and REC are destined to be failed causes, but how long must the people of Maine be ruined by the expense of these gimmicks? The answer is how much longer will Maine people put up with Democrat Party Control of the Maine Government?