Testimony in Opposition to LD 43, An Act to Reduce the Cost of Electricity by Removing the 100-megawatt Limit on Renewable Resources of Energy; and LD 622, An Act to Create Equal Opportunity Access to Clean Energy by Removing the 100-megawatt Limit on Clean Energy Sources
Senator Lawrence, Representative Zeigler, and members of the Joint Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology, my name is Rebecca Schultz. I am a Senior Advocate for Climate and Clean Energy at the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM). NRCM has been working for more than 60 years to protect, restore, and conserve Maine’s environment, on behalf of our 25,000 members and supporters.
I am here today to testify in opposition to LD 43 and LD 622, which are identical bills proposing to modify Maine’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) by eliminating the 100 MW cap on eligibility.¹
NRCM has been a longstanding supporter of Maine’s RPS, and we have testified in opposition to similar legislation aiming to eliminate the 100 MW cap in the past (e.g., 2014, 2015). Today we oppose lifting the 100 MW limit for similar reasons:
- It would provide no significant benefits to ratepayers;
- It would not increase production of renewable energy; and
- It would risk undermining the progress we’ve made to date in growing Maine’s clean energy economy.
Most states have an RPS program.² And like most states, the purpose of Maine’s RPS is to stimulate market demand for new investments in renewable energy and diversify the electricity portfolio to transition away from a costly reliance on fossil fuels. Lifting the 100 MW cap would directly undermine these purposes.
What the proposed change would effectively do is allow Canadian hydroelectric dams to qualify for Maine’s RPS, causing financial benefits to flow north of the border to their owner: Hydro-Quebec. Hydro-Quebec is a large, government-backed foreign utility that owns a network of massive hydropower projects. It posted $3.4 billion in profits in 2022, a 28 percent jump from the prior year due to selling electricity in the U.S. at elevated prices, driven higher by the natural gas crisis in Europe.³ Hydro-Quebec has not and will not provide below market power to Maine. It does not need to receive benefits from Maine ratepayers, and Maine’s economy would not benefit from providing them.
These bills would shift ratepayer support for renewables to Canada and correspondingly reduce those incentives for Maine-based energy producers. Maine’s RPS, along with the RPS programs of other New England states, has created tens of thousands of jobs in Maine and added billions to the state economy.4 What purpose does it serve to diminish Maine’s RPS program and shift those incentives away from the state economy by allowing large-scale, foreign hydropower to qualify?
Furthermore, doing so would do nothing to improve reliability. Over the recent Christmas holiday, for example, the New England grid faced an emergency power shortfall due in part to the fact that Hydro-Quebec cut electricity destined for the U.S. because of extreme cold and storm outages on the Canadian side of the border.5 Increasing our reliance on Canadian hydro imports would only increase this vulnerability.
To conclude, NRCM opposes these bills on the basis that removing the 100 MW limit would directly undermine the statutory purpose of Maine’s RPS to support in-state renewable energy development and strengthen our power supply through diversification. We urge you to vote Ought Not To Pass on this bill as this committee has done in the past.
Thank you for your consideration of this testimony.
[1] LD 43 available at https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=SP0035&item=1&snum=131; LD 622 available at https://legislature.maine.gov/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0399&item=1&snum=131
[2] Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE), Renewable & Clean Energy Standards, Nov 2022, available at https://ncsolarcen-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/RPS-CES-Nov2022.pdf.
[3] Hydro-Québec sees record profit on soaring U.S. export sales, Feb 23, 2023, available at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-22/hydro-quebec-posts-record-profit-with-soaring-us-export-sales.
[4] Strengthening Maine’s Clean Energy Economy, Governor’s Energy Office, Nov 2020, available at https://www.maine.gov/energy/sites/maine.gov.energy/files/inline-files/StrengtheningMainesCleanEnergyEconomy_Nov92020.pdf London Economics International, 2012 report for Maine Public Utilities Commission, overview available at https://www.nrcm.org/documents/Summary%20of%20LEI-PUC%20Report%20on%20RPS.PDF
[5] See ISO-NE Morning Reports for system imports from Canada, which dropped 85% below typical levels on Dec 22, 2022, available at https://www.iso-ne.com/markets-operations/system-forecast-status/morning-report-archived?day=20221221&version=20221221074205870. Maine’s Wyman Station helped ease Christmas power shortfall, Jan 9, 2023, available at https://www.pressherald.com/2023/01/09/regional-power-plants-fined-39-million-for-coming-up-short-on-christmas-eve/.
