Two reports, two energy visions for Maine (The Maine Monitor)
By Tux Turkel
Published on: March 13, 2026
EXCERPTS
Maine and New England must choose between two divergent paths for how to generate electricity in the coming years, according to two noteworthy reports released this winter that come to very different conclusions.
Despite their differences, both reports agree on one thing: New England’s already high electricity costs are bound to rise. The question is which path leads to smaller increases.
This isn’t a message Maine’s political hopefuls want to send during an election year, when affordability is top of mind for many voters. Some gubernatorial candidates have begun talking about how they would slash energy costs and even freeze electric rates.
These are appealing notions, as residents gasp at incoming energy bills driven higher by this winter’s prolonged cold snaps. Maine already saw the nation’s third-highest increase in average retail electricity prices between 2014 and 2024. This year, electricity supply prices are up 20 percent, adding $11 a month for an average household.
But Maine doesn’t directly run power plants. Rather, utility regulators solicit competitive bids from generators, which feed power into a six-state grid overseen by an independent systems operator. Utilities such as Central Maine Power transmit and distribute that power to homes and businesses.
While utilities haven’t produced electricity since state legislators forced them to sell their generating assets more than 25 years ago, the companies sometimes still get blamed when supply costs rise.
.................Angus King III, a Democrat and son of Sen. Angus King, is promoting a ratepayer “bill of rights” aimed at lowering costs through the use of more cost-effective renewable energy and by boosting efficiency. Among the elements are streamlining regulatory and permitting processes to lower the cost of new solar and wind projects..............King is the founder of Peaks Renewables in Clinton, which makes gas from cow manure. He has worked across the country on wind and solar projects..........................
Full article at https://themainemonitor.org/two-reports-two-energy-visions/
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Comment by Dan McKay 2 hours ago
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I am glad that Tux placed this graph in his report because I did an analysis for price changes from 2020 to 2023 and forwarded it to the OPA;
"I did an analysis: To find out if RGGI and REC prices were increasing supply prices, I looked at the years 2020 to 2023. Between these years RGGI annual price went up 111%( RGGI Website) & between these years Maine's annual average REC prices went up 616%( from PUC reports)"
"Natural gas fuel prices went up 0.621 cents per kilowatt hour while standard offer prices went up 4.3869 cents per kilowatt hour. Using the industry formula that states retail prices are traditionally 30% higher than wholesale prices, the 0.621 cents per kilowatt hour wholesale price would correspond to a 0.81 cents per kilowatt hour."
"The ISO-NE chart shows the spread between the average annual wholesale prices and the Standard Offer prices is increasing significantly. Something beyond ISO-NE wholesale prices is driving this phenomenon."
"When RGGI and REC prices held steady, the wholesale and standard offer prices rose or fell quite closely to the average gas prices."
"I appreciate your hard work, but I do not see wind and solar lowering prices ever. Part of the volatility of gas prices is the volatility of RGGI pricing and the intermittency of solar and wind as ISO-NE has to lean on natural gas as these renewables sputter or, in the case of solar rapidly drops as sunset approaches.This requires plants to accelerate to catch up with demand, much like your car gobbles up fuel when accelerating, fuel costs go up."
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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