Advancing renewable power is not sufficient: Maine needs a strategic plan and policy changes to help households and businesses get off fossil fuels.

Advancing renewable power is not sufficient: Maine needs a strategic plan and policy changes to help households and businesses get off fossil fuels.
Major utility reform is critical to realizing Maine’s clean energy plans, given the dominant utilities are driven by conventional thinking and shareholder returns.
Electricity Maine and other private suppliers cost residents $150 million over the last eight years.
To capture the many benefits of clean energy and forestall climate costs, Maine legislators should take rapid and bold action.
With the gasoline era coming to a close, how can a rural, aging and economically challenged state navigate a path to electrified transportation?
To achieve the legislated goal of decarbonizing Maine by 2050, the state must dramatically expand renewable power generation and transmission. Overcoming negative public opinion in the wake of the Hydro-Quebec corridor debate is just one obstacle in the way.
A lawyer for the dark money conduit, Mainers for Clean Energy Jobs, said the financial ties between it and the utility would have been disclosed by Sept. 7 under new ethics guidelines. But now that the referendum is off the ballot, the extent of those connections will go unreported.
Maine is looking to successful financing models in other states as it seeks ways to fund a statewide energy overhaul and climate adaptation measures.
More than 57,000 organizations and individuals formally opposed a recently filed petition that would remove Maine’s ability to set solar credit standards and shift control to the federal government. The change would impact thousands of Mainers who have already committed to solar projects.
Filed while the solar industry is reeling from the economic impacts of the coronavirus and state governments are focused on the pandemic, the petition could roll back net metering and unravel one of Gov. Mills’ key efforts to boost clean energy in Maine.
Help us expand our in-depth and enterprise reporting.
Many of our stories have been based on tips from readers.