Campaigning on affordability
By Rep. Steve Foster, R-Dexter
Candidates vying for your vote, from the bottom of the ticket to the top, are laying blame for, and vowing they’ll improve, our high cost of living. After nearly eight years in Augusta, it’s incredible to hear those who have held the majority and passed no legislation they didn’t like, deflect ownership for our current state of affairs. This is no truer than with the cost of electricity, which affects almost every aspect of our home, work place, and businesses. Having served four terms on the Energy, Utilities, and Technology Committee, I wanted to share some hard facts on how we got here.
Looking back, my December 2018 Central Maine Power bill shows the monthly residential cost for the average CMP user (550kwh/month) was $88.73. My September bill shows the average user cost is now $157.13. The CMP base delivery charge portion for “Up to 50kwh” rose from $11 to $27.37, mostly due to Net Energy Billing, subsidizing solar projects.
During these years, the EUT Committee heard 328 energy related bills. Of the 164 which were passed and enacted, 147 were sponsored by Democrats, 17 by Republicans. Besides Net Energy Billing (LD1711-2019), many of them added costs to ratepayers by increasing the duties of the Public Utilities Commission, the Office of the Public Advocate, the Department of Energy Resources and Efficiency Maine Trust. As a result, the budgets of the three state agencies grew significantly from 2018 to now. The total staffing of the PUC, OPA and DOER went from 75 to 113 with funding increasing from $27.48 million to $55.96 million. These State entities received their funding from a variety of sources including utility assessments (Electric- $14.2M), fees & penalties ($550,000), the general fund ($4.75 million) and federal funds ($17.33 million). The PUC staffing includes 16 working in other areas of telecommunications, 9-1-1 system, state ferry, gas and water utilities. The OPA also does limited work in the gas and water utilities.
The quasi-governmental Efficiency Maine Trust has a staff of 27 with available funding of $240 million, including federal funds ($21 million), Maine electric utilities procurement ($78 million), the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ($65 million), the Forward Capacity Market ($6 million) and the NECEC settlement ($5 million). These monies are eventually covered by ratepayers, taxpayers and consumers.
Many blame the cost of natural gas for our high electric rates, while doing nothing to address it. Our Northeast region does rely on gas for 50-60% of our electric generation. However, the lack of additional pipeline capacity through New York and Massachusetts for ideological reasons is why regional generators pay 10 times the cost as those south of New York, during high demand winter months. I’ve called this our ongoing ratepayer carbon tax. Additionally, Northeast regional natural gas generators are paid to stand by to ramp up when solar, wind and battery generation can’t meet demand. These “Forward Capacity” related market costs are significant and often unreported.
Finally, much of the 2019-26 legislation passed eventually led to additional requirements for the electric utilities. For example, LD1959, An Act To Ensure Transmission and Distribution Utility Accountability (2022), required the PUC to develop metrics for evaluating the utilities’ performance, with penalties assessed if not met. This in part led to utilities increased investment in tree trimming, line and equipment upgrades, and additional labor, decreasing the frequency and duration of outages. Most recently they were denied a temporary rate increase with much public push back from those initiating the requirements in light of the upcoming elections.