Maine "leaders" societal electrification and "renewable" BS is as recklessly stupid as it is arrogant
Uncertain investment challenges employers, apprenticeship programs and the next generation of workers.
Posted 10/12/26 at 4:58 AM
Tim Burgess
Tim Burgess is assistant business manager of IBEW Local 104.
When a severe storm knocks out power in the middle of the night, Mainers don’t think about regulatory dockets — they just look for the flashing lights of utility trucks rolling down their streets. The recent recommendation to deny Central Maine Power’s request for temporary rates has sparked a fierce statewide debate over affordability, spending and the future of our electric system.
These are critical issues that affect every household, but for the men and women who build, maintain and restore our grid, a far more troubling question is emerging.
What happens to the safety and stability of our workforce when participants follow the precise regulatory rules laid out by the state, only to be told at the finish line that the path no longer applies?
Central Maine Power sought temporary rates after the Public Utilities Commission itself
indicated they were available to address the severe financial uncertainty following the dismissal of the company’s long-term grid investment plan. CMP maintains that it followed the direction provided by regulators when it pursued temporary rates, filed the case, presented extensive evidence and all involved parties participated in good faith.
Everyone assumed that the process established by our regulators was available, stable and reliable. The recommendation currently before the commission calls that fundamental assumption into question.
For most Mainers, utility regulation feels abstract. For those who wear the tool belt and climb the poles, it is anything but. Decisions made in Augusta determine whether local contractors hire apprentices, whether vital grid projects move forward, whether stable work exists next year and whether Maine will possess the skilled workforce necessary to meet its aggressive energy and economic development goals.
Predictable investment, workforce development, apprenticeships and long-term grid reliability are interconnected. Uncertain investment makes it significantly harder for employers to expand their operations, harder for joint apprenticeship programs to grow and harder to prepare the next generation of highly skilled workers. This is not a matter of corporate self-interest. It goes directly to the heart of how safely the infrastructure is built.
Maine’s broader, long-term policy objectives sharpen the point. Our state leaders continue to aggressively promote widespread electrification, economic development, transportation electrification, rapid heat pump adoption and clean energy expansion. Every one of these initiatives drives up the daily demand for electrical infrastructure, heavy-duty service upgrades and overall grid capacity.
Meeting these goals requires a larger workforce and a stronger, more resilient grid. There is an inherent contradiction in encouraging a society-wide dependence on electricity while simultaneously creating deep financial uncertainty around the exact investments that such dependence requires.................................
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Comment by Dan McKay 10 hours ago
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The unintentional consequences of "Beneficial Electrification" or a blatant attempt to takeover CMP ? Now that Bartlett has left, perhaps he can be straight up with us. Which is it, Phil?
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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