Maine Focuses On Renewables Even As Trump Revokes Climate Policies

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You might think that the Trump administration’s rejection of all things climate-related might cause states to pause their original clean energy goals. Not so in Maine, where Governor Janet Mills recently signed legislation to codify and fast-track the state’s transition to 100% clean energy. The law, which advances Maine’s previous energy goals by a decade, requires the state to transition its energy portfolio to 90% renewable sources and 10% low or zero carbon sources by 2040.

While uncertainty about the future of federal tax credits for renewable energy projects does loom heavily, data about the benefits of renewables in Maine is very persuasive. Maine’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) has supported:

• renewable development and operation, resulting in over $100 million in direct investment
• approximately $900 million in operations and maintenance spending
• over 1,000 full-time equivalent jobs, yielding over $1 billion in worker income between 2008 and 2022
• for electric ratepayers, the net annual average benefit has been approximately $21.5 million between 2011 and 2022
• in 2023, roughly 65% of the energy generated in Maine came from renewable sources

Collaboration Across New England States Is Key

The RPS acknowledges that, across New England, long term procurement policies have been required to enable financing, drive investment in new renewable generation, and realize the economic impacts described above. In addition to supporting financing, procurement policies are also used to steer location or technology decisions and consider desirable production characteristics.

The legislation instructs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to collaborate with other states to negotiate more competitively-priced energy contracts that reduce costs for Maine ratepayers. To do so, the commission will seek to procure additional clean energy sources, transmission capacity, and energy storage projects through a collaborative rather than competitive approach.

All six New England states have their own procurement policies, which vary by percentage target, generator eligibility, and compliance flexibility mechanisms. Regional coordination and cooperation with other states and entities will be necessary on issues including power system generation and transmission investments, power system operations, electric vehicle adoption, and heat pump adoption. Regional coordination on these issues will be essential for managing costs and ensuring reliability, since many of these systems are regional in nature and the greater scale of coordinated efforts will be more effective.

Pathways to Clean Energy Goals in Maine

An updated State Energy Plan was designed to ensure affordable, reliable, and clean energy that supports the growth of Maine’s economy and communities while meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction requirements. The analysis identifies alternative pathways by which Maine might meet its clean energy and climate goals, which include reducing the dependence on oil in the state, utilizing 80% renewable electricity by 2030, procuring 100% clean electricity by 2040, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.

Pathways were simulated with a framework that models key energy uses across sectors. The framework produced detailed year-by-year forecasts of hourly end-use energy demand. It also identified the investment and operational decisions that yield the lowest cost way to meet this demand — while achieving the state’s clean energy goals.

Electrifying end uses that currently rely on fossil fuels is a key strategy for achieving Maine’s clean energy and climate goals. As the electrification of transportation and buildings progresses, it will raise electricity demand, so it will be essential for Maine to decarbonize its electricity supply. Maine is already taking steps to add clean electricity resources through its commitments to offshore wind, the Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program, and other renewable energy procurement.

Obstacles For Maine’s Climate Policies

LD 1868 passed by the Maine Legislature on June 13 and will reduce the state’s reliance on imported fossil fuels; the legislation creates opportunities to create new incentives for low-carbon sources in Maine’s energy portfolio. While this is noble, the road for Maine to reach its 2040 clean energy goals, in all likelihood, will be a bit uphill. It also has some obstacles to overcome, as outlined by the Boston Globe.

• Barriers to adoption may arise for both customer end-use technologies (heat pumps, EVs, electric water heaters) and supply-side technologies (renewable generation, storage, transmission, carbon neutral fuels).
• Expanded directives to bring clean energy sources onto Maine’s grid also assume that more renewable projects and transmission lines will be developed over the next two decades, even as federal roadblocks and local challenges arise. Policymakers must continue to modernize transmission and distribution planning to facilitate clean energy goals.
• Transportation is key to cost effective GHG reductions and electricity grid investment, which will require additional statewide focus.
• The state has long struggled to meet wind targets, with no offshore wind capacity and onshore capacity of around 1,100 megawatts, despite a 2008 law that set a goal of installing 2,000 megawatts of capacity by 2015. The recent target of installing 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2040 has been further undercut by the Trump administration.

• NIMBY resistance stalled plans for a 1,000 megawatt wind farm and accompanying $1 billion transmission line in Aroostook County.
• Legislation allows large-scale hydropower generators, yet a transmission line bringing hydropower from Canada to New England sparked massive opposition that set the project back years and hundreds of billions of dollars.
• Regional nuclear power plants will qualify for energy credits. The environmental risk factor of nuclear power compared to wind, solar, and other renewables is not equal.

Overall, though, even with these obstacles, energy supply costs are project to remain generally stable; fuel expenditures will fall, and electricity expenditures will rise as electricity substitutes for fuels as Maine’s primary source of energy.

Final Thoughts About Maine & Its Climate Goals

In the strange dynamic of being human, problems can lead to positive change. The Maine Public Utilities Commission has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the sale of energy or renewable energy credits to promote the economic reuse of contaminated land through clean energy development, in accordance with 35-A M.R.S. 3210-J. The RFP seeks proposals for energy or RECs from eligible Class IA renewable resources, with the goal to procure up to 1,573,026 MWh in this solicitation.

“This RFP demonstrates Maine’s strong commitment to both advancing clean energy and supporting the reuse of contaminated land for economic benefit,” said Commission Chair Philip L. Bartlett II. By prioritizing projects on PFAS-contaminated agricultural land, the MPUC is helping communities turn environmental challenges into opportunities for sustainable development and cost savings for ratepayers.