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Public hearing on the bill is scheduled for NEXT Tuesday
April 10, 2009
AUGUSTA – Local Reps. Thom Watson, D-Bath, and Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, are co-sponsors of LD 1450, An Act to Establish the Renewable Energy Resources Program, which has been referred to the Committee on Utilities and Energy. This is one of several “feed-in-tariff” bills being heard in the Legislature this year.
The bill was inspired by the success of Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act. However, unlike the German law, the Maine bill refers pricing or tariff setting to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which has long experience setting rates for investor-owned utilities.
Lead sponsor of LD 1450, Rep. Herb Adams, D-Portland, is the longest serving member of the Utilities and Energy Committee. Along with Watson and Berry, who is the House majority whip, other co-sponsors of the bill include: Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven; House Majority Leader John Piotti, D-Unity; and Senate Majority Leader Phil Bartlett, D-Cumberland.
The bill would require the PUC to establish by rule a renewable energy resources program to encourage the rapid and sustainable development of renewable energy resources and technology for environmentally healthy generation of electricity. It would require that utilities purchase renewably produced electricity from all qualified suppliers, and it would set the rate that electric utilities must pay for such power.
It also would reserve to the Legislature the power to periodically review and revise the rates and the terms of the standard contract in the public interest.
Like other bills based on the German model, Maine’s proposed Renewable Energy Sources Act is:
For more on the program, see Midcoast Green Collaborative
Contact:
Rep. Thom Watson, 442-7493
Andrew Roth-Wells, Legislative Aide, 287-1430
Kyle Leighton, Communications Director, 287-1433