Consumer, business advocates urge focus on affordability as electric bills climb

Maine Public | By Peter McGuire
Published November 20, 2025 at 4:24 PM EST

New electric supply contracts selected by Maine utility regulators could increase household bills by $13 to $17 a month according to the Maine Office of Public Advocate.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission annually selects companies to provide electricity to homes and businesses in the state, a regulated rate called the standard offer.

The price of electricity in New England is tied to natural gas markets because gas is used to generate about half of the region's power.

Increasing natural gas prices are coming as Mainers are already dealing with rising power bills, said Public Advocate Heather Sanborn.

"When every dollar matters, this is a significant increase for families and small businesses that are already stretched thin," Sanborn said in a statement.

"The Public Advocate’s office remains focused on long-term strategies that will make Maine’s energy bills more stable and predictable," Sanborn added.

In an interview, Sanborn said that new power generation coming online this year from the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm near Martha's Vineyard and Quebec hydropower through the controversial New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line in Western Maine could help offset electric prices in coming years.

The Office of Public Advocate is also examining ways to make sure Mainers get the best value from the bidding process to select electric providers, Sanborn said.

Continue at https://www.mainepublic.org/climate/2025-11-20/consumer-business-ad...

************************************ 


Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Views: 26

Comment

You need to be a member of Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine to add comments!

Join Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine

Comment by Penny Gray 4 hours ago

I'm going out to cut more firewood.  It's going to be a cold winter.

Comment by Dan McKay 6 hours ago
Central Maine Power, as of October 31, 2025, estimates that 816,092,818 kilowatt-hours of electricity credits will be produced by projects utilizing Net Energy Billing subsidies.
A 2 cent per kilowatt-hour rate hike will subsidize NEB projects; 816,092,818 times $.02 = $16,321,856, therefore, the rate base incurs an additional $16,321,856 bill from the 2 cent per kWH supply cost hike to pay solar developers on top of the 2 cents times their annual kWH consumption. 
For 550 kWH per month, that is $132 to pay for rate hike plus the dividends paid to NEB participants which is factored into the next rate hike as "Stranded Costs" applied to the service charge, which will  also factor into the next supply cost rate hike as more NEB projects along with the 4%+ increase  mandated in the renewable portfolio standard increases the amount of costs within the standard offer and the competitive energy provider costs.
This cycle of rate increases will not stop unless we STOP IT.
Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain 16 hours ago

CONGRESSWOMAN MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION FROM CONGRESS!
https://rumble.com/v722jvq-congresswoman-marjorie-taylor-greene-ann...

Comment by Dan McKay yesterday

It looks like, if current price trajectories hold, oil boiler heating costs will be below heat pump costs by January 1, 2026 with the new standard offer.Happy New Year and stay warm.

Comment by Dan McKay yesterday

Sanborn would rather tell people they are suffering with higher electric costs than do anything about it. The worst public advocate of all time

 Maine would be better off without a PA than having this Democrat solar bundler.

 

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/

Not yet a member?

Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?

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

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

 -- Mahatma Gandhi

"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi 

Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!

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/

© 2025   Created by Webmaster.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service