The many parts that make up electricity bills with a focus on RGGI costs
The cost of electricity to Maine customers may be billed on CMP and Versant invoices, but a variety of hands determine what we pay.
Supply costs develop from a regional wholesale market known as ISO-NE and from Maine state policies, some of which incorporate cooperation with the other ISO-NE states ( Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire) and some Maine state policies are standalone policies solely affecting Maine customers.
What's going on in the wholesale market? 2024 total wholesale prices were $10.2 billion, a 11% increase over 2023. Total wholesale prices for 2025 will be higher than 2024 prices and the numbers will come out in May 2026. The new 2026 supply rates indicate another annual hike is coming, and on and on it goes.
Basically, the regional wholesale prices are derived from the costs of energy ( production costs from the generators), capacity costs( again from generators), regional network load costs( regional transmission upgrades, relibiity payments), and other ancillary costs.
Maine is enrolled in RGGI, which is a carbon tax assessed on fossil fuel generators. The carbon tax raises production costs of the energy component. ISO-NE attributes the increase in energy costs to higher input costs and changes in the supply mix,including increased CO₂ emissions costs under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) program and reduced net imports from Quebec.
All New England states are enrolled in RGGI. To completely erase RGGI costs would require all the NE states to disenroll from RGGI. Maine could transfer the Maine assessed RGGI payments made by Maine fossil fuel plants back to the Maine ratepayers and that would be a significant saving, for the year of 2025: $47 million dollars. Unfortunately, this probably will not happen, because other New England states would consider Maine a traitor to to the "climate control mission" that intends to shut down fossil fuel plants and, naturally, Maine's lawmakers would buckle under the pressure. Maine, even with the defection from RGGI, would have to pay a good portion of the RGGI production costs from other New England fossil fuel plants paying RGGI fines.
You can start to see how climate control policies wind their way into the several markets that contribute to the overall electric bill, RGGI costs just scratch the surface of the problem, and we have to wonder if anyone in Maine's Goverment is willing to confront this with action.
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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
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(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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