Transmission vision | Why you should call Augusta now to support Peter Vigue's bright idea
Construction, like many other industries, rewards innovation. Companies are rewarded with jobs if they figure out a better way to accomplish a given task. Or they’re rewarded when they find ways to do something otherwise considered impossible. Both types of innovation are familiar to Pittsfield’s Cianbro Corp., which has brought oil rigs to Portland for overhaul and is now building modular refinery components in Brewer.
Cianbro’s CEO Peter Vigue has applied his spirit of innovation to some of Maine’s most vexing problems, and he’s lately come up with a plan that lets us better use an existing asset to make Maine a national leader in six fields. He’s even figured out how to use this asset without sacrificing our core values or our commitment to a clean environment.
Long a player in energy infrastructure development, the Caribou native figured out that by leasing existing state rights-of-way, we could generate revenue to invest in areas vital to our future competitiveness.
Portions of this plan were adopted by Gov. John Baldacci and unveiled during his March 10 State of the State address. In that speech, Baldacci cited some $7 billion in potential investments in energy initiatives — like wind and tidal power — made necessary by our nation’s thirst for renewable power. A lynchpin in Baldacci’s plan is finding a way to move that green power to market. His support for Central Maine Power Co.’s Maine Power Reliability Program is crucial to maintain Maine’s grid, and for renewable energy, the governor appears willing to adapt Vigue’s vision for transmitting power through our state.
Vigue’s approach avoids today’s most contentious and time-consuming aspects of making utility upgrades — that of appeasing abutting landowners who are often reluctant to have their vistas altered by a new transmission line. In this case, Vigue overcomes the obstacle by not going above or around it, but by going under it. Vigue proposes putting new transmission lines underground in the I-95 median, and he wants the state to expedite permitting to hurry the deal along.
This approach, which has been endorsed by state leaders, eliminates the need for transactions with 8,000 landowners and 110 municipalities. Individual landowners and municipalities have made CMP’s Maine Power Reliability Program more contentious than necessary by contesting the project with the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
The cornerstone of the effort is to allow for a 240-mile, 660-megawatt power line that would bring renewable wind and hydroelectric power from Maine and Canada to load centers in Connecticut and Massachusetts. This $800 million investment would generate property taxes in excess of $40 million per year. The state would then securitize the revenue stream and issue a $1.6 billion bond that would be used to boost areas like heating and energy security and business investment and attraction.
Going under the problem
What makes Vigue’s idea to lease state rights-of-way so tantalizing is that it could actually work. The plan has garnered considerable political support from members of legislative leadership and from the governor. Senate President Libby Mitchell has sponsored a bill, LD 955, “An Act to Transform the Maine Economy and Create Jobs,” which would implement Vigue’s vision.
While upgrades to our electric transmission system get all the attention, the reality is the plan could change the way we use energy. LD 955 proposes creating an authority to oversee Maine’s migration away from No. 2 home heating oil to cheaper and cleaner electric and geothermal heat. The Energy Trust Authority would be able to offer grants and low or no-interest loans for weatherization and heating system conversions. These household conversions would be administered by the state’s utilities, which already have the billing apparatus necessary to administer the loan payments.
Leveraging the University of Maine’s leadership in composites, the bill also proposes to make Maine the world leader in offshore wind power. Given the school’s expertise in composites, Vigue believes UMaine could have a pilot facility online within three years, and 5 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity online by 2020.
Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” As a state, we are often in the position of expecting a different result, in this case having a healthy economy, without being willing to change anything we’re doing. But in Augusta there may be some hope. Business leaders who want to move Maine forward will call legislators today and ask them to help pass LD 955.
John O’Dea is executive director of Associated General Contractors of Maine. He can be reached at editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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