The Ball Less Maine PUC Seeks Courage to End NEB Corruption and Proves It Has None.
"The PUC Commission is examining long-term financial mechanisms and buy-down arrangements that could allow distributed generation project sponsors to voluntarily exit existing NEB arrangements."
It seems the Maine Government has found itself in a pickled mess regarding Net Energy Billing and is asking for a remedy that would entice all these solar projects to exit NEB arrangements. What a joke. These project sponsors are making money, hand over fist. Only a moron would think they would give up the golden goose.
Nevertheless, A few have responded to the PUC's plea:
CMP wants them to know " CMP is a transmission and distribution utility. CMP does not own or sell generation..."
In other words, This is your mess, you fix it.
The fact is when CMP was allowed to own generation, the Maine lawmakers during the 1980s commanded they include overpriced distributed generation in the resource mix, mainly small scale wind, biomass and solar.
CMP realized that this was a stupid and costly idea and finally bought out all this garbage electricity and saved the ratepayers years of high costs. So, it isn't surprising to hear CMP throwing this NEB stuff right back into the PUC's face.
THe OPA response: "If the Commission chooses to pursue a new voluntary opt-in program under Section 3209-E, the OPA recommends that the Commission adopt a strict ratepayerbenefits test to ensure that ratepayers do not end up worse off under the program."
Lots of help from the OPA, huh.
And, of course the solar sponsors chimed in, saying just keep allowing us to reap in massive profits from the ratepayers.
The truth is, by the sponsors own admission, is that these solar projects receive their return on investment (ROI) at seven years of the twenty year contracts. In fact, when a project sponsor asked during a public hearing at a recent session of a EUT Committe Hearing if NEB projects obtained ROI after 7 years by a lawmaker, the sponsor quickly responded with a sales pitch saying ROI was actually 5 years.
It would seem, if the PUC had any balls, they would call off all NEB benefits to these projects after 5 years and tell them to go find willing customers to buy their product or request the ISO-NE to pay wholesale prices for their output. It is up to the PUC to stop the fleecing.
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Comment
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Comment by Willem Post 54 minutes ago
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Up to the PUC to stop the fleecing of ratepayers who do not own solar systems?
Fat chance!
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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