Climate advocates caution against rolling back Maine's clean energy credit program
While legislative committees are winding down their work for the session, the Legislature's Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee has yet to decide what it will do with a slew of proposals aimed at reforming or outright eliminating the state's clean energy credit program.
The committee is still holding several work sessions this week on the matter, though it has voted on some of the proposals to tweak or toss the program, known as net energy bill, which many agree needs reform.
Meanwhile, clean energy advocates, including representatives from the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Maine Youth for Climate Justice, Maine Conservation Voters, and Maine Community Power Cooperative, gathered at the State House Thursday morning asking lawmakers to reject any attempts at rolling back or making retroactive changes to the net energy billing program.
Activists, solar customers and laborers also roamed the halls talking with lawmakers about continued support for solar energy.
The group also highlighted three specific measures it would like to see passed, including a proposal to develop a cabinet-level Maine Department of Energy. They are also backing a bill to codify the goal of 100% clean, renewable energy by 2040 into state law, and another proposal to establish new energy fairness and affordability standards.
Multiple speakers, including Eliza Donoghue, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association, underscored the importance of considering investor confidence when contemplating changes to net energy billing
'Businesses like ours can adapt to small changes in a program, but we can't plan around uncertainty or volatility,' agreed Dale Knapp of Portland-based Waldon Renewables. 'We at least need to know the playing field.'
Knapp went on to say that 'the policy signals we send right now to the industry can determine whether Maine remains a place where energy companies like ours continue to want to invest.'
That investment goes beyond new energy sources, Knapp said, calling them a 'strategic investment in our economy.' For example, a 20-megwatt project his company is working on in Sanford employs 125 people and the vast majority of them live in Maine. So, he said, they are using local gas stations, grabbing lunch at local restaurants and buying supplies from local hardware stores.
During the public hearings for some of the proposals, the Governor's Energy Office also cautioned the committee against proposals that would change the way people are compensated for existing projects.
'Broad retroactive modifications to the core mechanisms in determining compensation under the program as these bills propose and others will have a dramatic effect on 16,000 projects in the state, more than 114,000 customers,' said Caroline Colan, legislative liaison for the Governor's Energy Office, testifying before the committee in April.
The committee has already rejected one such proposal, LD 1317, which would have adjusted the tariff rate over the next few years to eventually reach 12 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2028. Solar companies testified that such a rate would not be sufficient.
Similarly, the committee killed two proposals to repeal net energy billing entirely: LD 257 and LD 450.
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