An Energy Policy for Maine and Maybe New Hampshire and Vermont

  • Maine policy changes that would reduce the cost of electricity to everyone in Maine

  • 1. Instead of counting renewable energy as purchases from renewable plants throughout New England and New York, set up the criteria measuring renewable energy as renewable energy produced by Maine plants only. Such data displays Maine's contribution by Maine-made electrical production, which is currently at 80% + renewable and exceeding policy goals

  • 2. Assign the renewable label to all hydro generated power and all nuclear power, both clean sources of electricity.

  • 3 Put in a real policy that assigns in-state natural gas-fired and oil-fired plant production to peaking 5-minute intervals only. Currently, natural gas-fired plants set the price of electricity for nearly the entire daily time period. for all of New England. The high cost of natural gas is reflected in electricity prices during off-peak and on-peak hours.
     

  • Maine's in-state generation by natural gas-fired plants was 16.7% of all in-state generation in 2020 while the New England generation from natural gas-fired plants was 40%. The differential has been growing for years. 

  • In other words, why are we in Maine at the mercy of natural gas prices when we can go without natural gas-fired electric generation for most and not all of the day.?

  • Why does Maine ratepayers have to pay to acquire renewable energy outside of Maine when Maine produces 80% clean energy?

  • Why aren't all amounts of hydropower and nuclear classified as renewables?

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Comment by Dan McKay on November 13, 2022 at 2:12pm

Richard, Monique

According to a Central Maine Power report to the Maine PUC ( October 2022), Maine's total solar projects in the queue (IN the CMP territory only :Active Projects, Projects with Net Energy Billing Agreements, Pending Projects) have a net estimated annual production that amounts to 21% of Maine's consumption. This would mean in-state annual renewable generation exceeds 100% ( 80% current + 21% solar) of Maine's annual electricity consumption and, thereby, eliminating the need for the Renewable Portfolio Standard a notable burden on ratepayers. The 100 MW hydro proposal becomes unnecessary, but would lower rates to counteract the costs of solar.
Comment by Richard McDonald/Saving Maine on November 13, 2022 at 1:18pm

Dan, Hydro and nuclear are excluded from renewables to allow the wind/solar industry to build out more intermittent resources and make millions - that was the intention of the '08 Wind Act. It will never change.  

Comment by Monique Aniel Thurston on November 13, 2022 at 11:56am

State of Maine Legislature

Summary of LD 1027

Bill Info
LD 1027 (HP 757)
"An Act To Eliminate the 100-megawatt Limit on Hydroelectric Generators under the Renewable Resources Laws"
Sponsored by Representative Jeffery Hanley

Status Summary
Reference Committee Energy, Utilities and Technology
Last House Action 5/7/2019 -  Reports READ.
On motion of Representative BERRY of Bowdoinham, the Majority Ought Not to Pass Report was ACCEPTED.
ROLL CALL NO. 68
(Yeas 86 - Nays 56 - Absent 7 - Excused 1 Vacant 1)
Sent for concurrence. ORDERED SENT FORTHWITH.
Last Senate Action 5/8/2019 -  Reports Read
On motion by Senator LAWRENCE of York the Majority Ought Not to Pass Report ACCEPTED. in concurrence
Roll Call Ordered Roll Call Number 84 Yeas 19 - Nays 12 - Excused 4 - Absent 0
Placed in Legislative Files (DEAD)
Comment by Willem Post on November 10, 2022 at 9:52am

COLD WEATHER IN TEXAS: During the cold period of Feb 7 to Feb 17, 2021, electricity from wind, natural gas and nuclear were impacted by the cold weather.

 

Forecasted demand was 75,000 MW, but generation fed to grid was 48,000 MW, for a shortfall of 27,000 MW, at 10 am on Feb 16, which required rolling blackouts, during freezing conditions. See image in eia URL

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=46836

 

Texas had about 34,000 MW of installed wind turbines

Texas had about 8,200 MW of installed solar systems

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Texas

 

Wind and Solar Were Unavailable When Needed: Wind decreased from 22,500 MW at 11 pm on Feb 7, to near-zero at 11 am on Feb 9; the wind decrease was counteracted by increased electricity from natural gas plants. See image in eia URL

Wind decreased from 9,500 MW at 6 pm on Feb 14, to near-zero at 9 pm on Feb 15, when electricity demand was high.

Solar never exceeded 5000 MW at midday (not of much use at other times); it was 500 MW at 1 pm on Feb 14, when electricity demand was high.

 

These articles and image are provided for reference.

.

ISO-NE REPORT OF 2021 ECONOMIC STUDY: FUTURE GRID RELIABILITY STUDY PHASE 1

https://www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2022/07/2021_economi...

 

DEEP DIVE SUMMARY OF THE ISO-NE REPORT

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-england-future-grid-study-iso/...

 

LIFE WITHOUT OIL

Life without oil means many products that are made with oil, such as the hundreds listed below, would need to be provided by wind and solar and hydro.

Folks, including Biden's attendants, wanting to get rid of fossil fuels, such as crude oil, better start doing some rethinking.

The above also applies to natural gas, which is much preferred by many industries

If you do not have abundant low-cost energy, you cannot have modern industrial economies.

APPENDIX 1

 

These articles contain significant information regarding wind, solar and grid-scale battery systems

 

GRID-SCALE BATTERY SYSTEMS IN NEW ENGLAND TO COUNTERACT SHORTFALL OF ONE-DAY WIND/SOLAR LULL

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/grid-scale-battery-sys...

COLD WEATHER OPERATION IN NEW ENGLAND DECEMBER 24, 2017 TO JANUARY 8, 2018

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/cold-weather-operation...

ANALYSIS OF WIND AND SOLAR ENERGY LULLS AND ENERGY STORAGE IN GERMANY

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/wind-and-solar-energy-...

IRELAND FUEL AND CO2 REDUCTIONS DUE TO WIND ENERGY LESS THAN CLAIMED    

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/fuel-and-co2-reduction...

BATTERY SYSTEM CAPITAL COSTS, OPERATING COSTS, ENERGY LOSSES, AND AGING

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital...

HIGH COSTS OF WIND, SOLAR, AND BATTERY SYSTEMS IN US NORTHEAST

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/high-costs-of-wind-sol...

APPENDIX 2

 

These articles explain a lot about the world-wide “Climate Crisis” scam, based on highly compromised surface station measurements, which typically read HIGH.

 

Climate scientists SUBJECTIVELY adjust the readings for use in their SUBJECTIVE computerized-temperature-calculation programs, which are used in the reports of IPCC, etc., for scare-mongering purposes.

 

New Surface Stations Report Released – It’s ‘worse than we thought’

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/new-surface-stations-r...

 

Weather- Just how does it happen?

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/weather-just-how-does-...

 

A summary of the results of three “Physics of the Earth’s Atmosphere” papers, which were submitted for peer review at the Open Peer Review Journal.

https://globalwarmingsolved.com/2013/11/19/summary-the-physics-of-t...

 

APPENDIX 3

 

Satellites and balloons measure temperatures of the Troposphere, which starts at ground level, and has an average height of 59,000 ft at the tropics, 56,000 ft at the middle latitudes, and 20,000 ft at the poles. Above those levels starts the Stratosphere.

 

Balloons directly measure temperatures. Satellites measure radiation, from which temperatures are calculated. 

Both consistently measure much lower temperatures than the average of 102 computer-generated graphs.

See Appendix 2 and 3

 

The data in the below images is for a 43-y period.

There is global warming, but it is not anywhere near as much as scare-mongers are claiming.

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/grid-scale-battery-sys...

 

1) Objective satellite and balloon temperatures increased from 0.00 to 0.5 C, or, or 0.116 C/decade 

2) Subjective computer-generated temperatures increased from 0.00 to 1.20 C; or 0.28 C/decade, about 2.7 TIMES AS FAST

 

The temperature data by satellites and balloons are more accurate than land-based measurements.

See Appendix 2 and URL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAH_satellite_temperature_dataset

Satellite measurements are made many times during every day and systematically cover almost the entire world; +/- 85-degree latitude.

The satellite data is vastly more complete, and accurate than would be gathered by ground stations. (See Appendix 2) 

 

Balloon measurements, made on a sampling basis, are vastly less complete than satellite measurements, but they serve as a useful crosscheck on the satellite measurements. 

 

NOTE: Behind the 102 computer graphs are hundreds of organizations that likely receive a significant part of their revenues from governments and subsidy-receiving wind, solar, battery, etc., businesses.

The livelihood and career prospects of the people creating these graphs is more secure, if they aim high, rather than low.

https://www.scienceunderattack.com/blog/2021/2/22/latest-computer-c...

 

A more detailed view of satellite temperatures.

APPENDIX 4

Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) and also a member of the CO2 Coalition. Sheahen and the Coalition are collaborating on a brief.

SEPP’s October 8 newsletter contains a summary of a major 2021 paper by Happer and co-author William van Wijngaarden that completely undermines the fake “science” the IPCC and EPA used to support the case of climate alarm. See URL

https://wvanwijngaarden.info.yorku.ca/files/2021/03/WPotency.pdf?x4...

Sheahen specifically discusses the efforts of Professors William van Wijngaarden and William Happer in their pioneering work in calculating the real-world Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) of the five most common Green-House Gases (GHGs).

Sheahan explains why the approach used by IPCC is faulty, but nonetheless used by its followers, such as the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the EPA.

These faulty methods lead to great exaggeration of the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide, methane, and other minor greenhouse gases.

Sheahan shows the stunning agreement between the calculations of van Wijngaarden and Happer (W & H) with satellite measurements (and balloon measurements) of outgoing infrared radiation emitted by the earth to space . . .

Sheahan claims, because of the exceptionally good agreement between observational data and the calculations of W & H, we can conclude the W&H model has been validated.

The W&H model embodies the scientific method, i.e., it is reasonable to use it to study other hypothetical cases.

It is not possible to do so with IPCC models, which have never achieved agreement with observations. 

See Appendix 3

The gist of the H&W work is the greenhouse effect of CO2 in the atmosphere is almost entirely saturated, such that any additional CO2 can have almost no additional warming effect.

Here is a chart prepared by Sheahan to illustrate the H&W results.

As atmospheric CO2 increases, say from 380 to 420 ppm; the-40 ppm increase has about 0.05C warming effect.

As atmospheric CO2 increases, say from 20 to 60 ppm; the 40-ppm increase has about a 0.5C warming effect.

 

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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We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.

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 -- Mahatma Gandhi

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Vince Lombardi 

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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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