Maine must counter ‘regulatory malpractice’ on Aroostook Wind | Douglas Rooks

Another incorrigible greenie.

Maine must counter ‘regulatory malpractice’ on Aroostook Wind | Douglas Rooks

The state should take full control of this and future wind energy projects so it can meet its own needs first.

Posted 4:47 AM
Douglas Rooks

When he took office in 2011, Gov. Paul LePage seemed ambivalent about the wind energy projects being constructed around the state, chiefly in Washington County and western Maine. They were set in motion by legislation signed in 2003 by his predecessor, John Baldacci.

LePage soon turned against them, however, and no more turbines were approved.

Maine didn’t achieve the 3,000-megawatt goal Baldacci had set, and the state now has 923 megawatts in place. Turbine developers instead shifted their resources to the Great Plains, with major installations from the Dakotas south to Texas. Nonetheless, wind accounts for about a quarter of the electricity produced in Maine.

Now, Maine has the opportunity for a giant leap forward in windpower, more than doubling its capacity. It’s called Aroostook Wind, which at an initial size of 1,200 megawatts equals Hydro Quebec’s contribution to the Massachusetts grid that has flowed through Maine since January. Turbine technology has greatly improved since the earlier models installed here, with enormous towers expected that are far more efficient and can operate in lighter winds.

Aroostook is especially well adapted to these advances, since windspeeds are particularly strong at night — when solar arrays, which have seen substantial expansion in Maine over the past decade, are not producing.

All the New England states except New Hampshire have renewable energy mandates, and Maine’s is the most ambitious — 100% carbon-neutral electricity by 2040. Aroostook Wind and other potential projects are by far the cheapest and fastest way of meeting those requirements, coming in at about one-third the price of recent projections for offshore wind.

Yet only a small fraction of these enormous public benefits will be realized under the current RFP (request for proposal) put out to bid by the Maine Public Utilities Commission. Following an earlier RFP where the bidder withdrew because of escalating costs, the PUC has decided the project won’t be owned by Maine, but will effectively be shared throughout New England.

The specific provision requires that Aroostook power be offered to all participating states under exactly the same terms and pricing as Maine. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that most of the electricity will flow to Massachusetts and Connecticut, which together have nearly 10 times the population of Maine. Former State Planning Director Richard Silkman has accurately described this PUC decision as “regulatory malpractice.”

Control of our own energy infrastructure was exactly the issue that led .................................

Continue reading at https://www.pressherald.com/2026/02/26/maine-must-counter-regulator...

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