LePage energy director seeks rewrite of wind law
Patrick Woodcock, director of the Governor's Energy Office, is urging lawmakers to rewrite the state's 2008 Wind Energy Act so that a greater emphasis is placed on lowering electricity costs and improving Maine's economy than on increasing the state's wind energy capacity.
Woodcock's recommendations were made Thursday to the Legislature's Energy and Utilities Committee, which was reviewing several bills calling for rolling back provisions of the 2008 wind energy law. That law, a top priority of former Gov. John Baldacci, fast-tracked wind energy development in Maine and created ambitious goals for the state, setting targets of 2,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity by 2015, 3,000 by 2020 and 8,000 by 2030.
Woodcock told the Bangor Daily News that Maine won't reach the threshold goal of 2,000 megawatts of wind power energy by 2015 – with the state's capacity today being only 435 megawatts, according to the Maine Renewable Energy Association.
"I think that it's an unrealistic goal, and there should be consideration beyond that of whether megawatt capacity installed is really the best metric of our wind energy policies," Woodcock said. "I believe we should have longer-term goals for electricity prices and for employment in the industry and, ultimately, that Maine is getting value from wind energy."
Jeremy Payne, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association, told the newspaper erasing the wind power goals from state law could signal to potential investors that Maine isn't interested in wind energy investments. He said adding wind to Maine's energy mix helps make it less sensitive to price swings affecting other energy sources such as coal and natural gas.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments