Jim Fossel: Maine’s Green New Deal as substance-free as the federal version

The Maine version of the Green New Deal, formally unveiled by its proponents recently and facing a public hearing this week, was at least introduced as actual legislation. That makes it a little less vague than its federal counterpart, albeit only slightly so. Its two most concrete components require electricity providers to switch to 80 percent renewable electricity by 2040 and require the Public Utility Commission and Efficiency Maine Trust to write legislation that lets public schools use a system of credits known as “virtual net metering” to discount their electric bills by participating in off-site community solar farms.

Given that state government can barely figure out a budget that works for two years at a time, it seems a little grandiose for the Legislature to require private companies to plan two decades down the road – after all, even the Soviets only had five-year plans. By 2040, we might be using entirely new forms of power or power transmission technology, or the public utility companies currently operating in Maine might not even exist. Long-term planning isn’t a terrible idea in and of itself, of course, but it seems silly for a government that operates in two-year cycles to make private companies come up with a two-decade plan. It’s especially ridiculous when one realizes that any future Legislature may eliminate or modify that statute at any time.

Read the full piece here:

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/04/21/jim-fossel-maines-green-new-...

LD 1282 An Act To Establish a Green New Deal for Maine

http://legislature.maine.gov/committee/#Committees/EUT

Read the bill here:

Maine%20129%20-%20HP%20924%20item%201%282%29%20-%20Copy.pdf

EXCERPT:

Part B creates the Task Force for a Green New Deal, which consists of 11 members including representatives of State Government, climate science, renewable energy, youth, labor and business.

Note above how "state government" is capitalized. I'm not sure if that's technically correct or just an upper case bow to the all powerful state.

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University of Maine may replace destroyed wind turbine with solar panels (BDN)

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is committed to green energy but not necessarily to replacing its wind turbine that caught fire a year ago.

Ben Shaw, the university’s chief business officer, said the campus is considering solar or other renewable energy projects in addition to turbine replacement.

https://bangordailynews.com/2019/04/21/news/aroostook/northern-main...

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Just a concept 25 years ago, the International Appalachian Trail now crosses continents

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/04/21/just-a-concept-25-years-ago-...

See the IAT map here:

https://www.internationalatmaine.org/copy-2-of-guides-maps

Note the IAT comes very close to the Oakfield Hills, home of the wind project which went up over the objections of neighboring Island Falls. Also note the trail's proximity to places where wind companies have applied for met towers.

First Wind Eyes Katahdin Country

https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1493999757?profile=original

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/first-wind-eyes-katahdi...

International Appalachian Trail Gets $ponsor$hip $upport from First Wind

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/international-appalachi...

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Comment by Willem Post on April 22, 2019 at 8:42am

Lenny,

FYI

Hydro-Quebec Electricity Generation and Purchases: Google this URL for the 2017 facts. The H-Q electricity supply is an order of magnitude cleaner than the Vermont supply.
http://www.hydroquebec.com/sustainable-development/energy-environme...

 

Table 6/H-Q

2017

GWh

Hydropower generated 

177091

Purchased

44006

- Hydro

31610

- Wind

9634

- Biomass and waste reclamation 

2021

- Other

741

Total RE generated and purchased

221097

 

NOTE:Gentilly-2 nuclear generating station, plus three thermal generating stations (Tracy, La Citière and Cadillac) were closed down.

 

Hydro-Quebec Export Electricity:H-Q net exports were 34.4 TWh/y in 2017; provided 27% of H-Q net income, or $780 million, i.e., very profitable.

 

H-Q export revenue was $1,651 million in 2017, or 1641/34.4 = 4.8 c/kWh.

See page 24 of Annual Report URL.

This is for a mix of old and new contracts.

Revenue = 1641

Net profit = 780

Cost = 1641 - 780 = 861

Average cost of H-Q generation = 861/34.4 = 2.5 c/kWh

 

GMP buys H-Q electricity, at the Vermont border, for 5.549 c/kWh, under a recent contract. GMP buys at 5.549 c/kWh, per GMP spreadsheet titled “GMP Test Year Power Supply Costs filed as VPSB Docket No: Attachment D, Schedule 2, April 14, 2017”.

H-Q is eager to sell more of its surplus electricity to New England and New York.

 

That is about 50% less than ridgeline wind and large-scale field-mounted solar, which are heavily subsidized to make their electricity appear to be less costly than reality. 

 

GMP sells to households at 19 c/kWh, per rate schedule, including taxes, fees and surcharges. Pricing for electricity is highly political. That is implemented by rate setting, taxes, fees, surcharges, etc., mostly on household electric bills, as in Denmark and Germany, etc. The rate setting is influenced by protecting State government “RE policy objectives”, which include highly subsidized, expensive microgrids, islanding, batteries and net metered solar and heat pumps.

 

http://www.hydroquebec.com/sustainable-development/energy-environme...

http://news.hydroquebec.com/en/press-releases/1338/annual-report-2917/

http://www.hydroquebec.com/data/documents-donnees/pdf/annual-report...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/green-mountain-power-co...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/increased-canadian-hydr...

Comment by Lenny Murphy on April 21, 2019 at 11:29pm

Small and large water power is the best and cleanest source of truly clean power 24 hours every day! There is no way to better the best source of power we can make for free at no cost to the environment except for the cost of building the devices to generate! To compare to commercial wind power that causes more harm then it saves, just one ton of cement for the wind generator foundations puts one ton of Carbon Dioxide into your atmosphere as well as much heat and Carbon Dioxide etc.! Unless you are getting free Federal dollars, which pushes up the National Debt etc., to bring forward commercial wind power then it may not bother you about all of the taxation without representation that is involved with big wind power and some of our politicians! Our schools needs to get involved in small water power and solar power to energized themselves and the world! It has been stated that Maine has almost enough water power potential to supply power for the country what are we waiting for there are few jobs in Maine and hydro and solar power can give students jobs by the thousands! Students need roots to help them stand on their own they can not get job skill from European and Canadian sports that have taken over our school systems and pushed our health care cost to the point that we can not afford insurance, true or false! Students should compete with a better solar panel to display and share and not end up with broken bones, if we could not get insurance on our kids when they play head butting sports would we let them pound on each other the way they do for a gold ball, not likely? We must ask for more realistic training in schools so students can be and feel more self-reliant independent and capable of making it today without all the drugs and others ways to prop them self up artificially! Truly yours, Lenny Murphy 746-9212

 

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 

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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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