PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 5, 2023
The Office of the Public Advocate and others have suggested that net energy billing is responsible for rapidly rising electrical prices. This is a diversionary tactic to distract attention from the actual causes, including high fossil fuel prices – especially natural gas. Net energy billing can and should be updated. Not all solar is created equal; out-of-state developers rushed into Maine because of its generous incentive program. Both sides of the political aisle agree that large-scale projects should be developed under competitive procurement, not net energy billing. L.D. 1986 would require utilities and the PUC to fairly account for the benefits of distributed energy projects, while also reducing the “losses” utilities claim and charge ratepayers for. ~ Johannah Blackman and Beth Woolfolk, A Climate to Thrive, Mount Desert Island