Imagine a medium-sized electricity consumer who does everything that the state efficiency program asks of it: the business pays to install more efficient equipment, in order to reduce electricity consumption and reap the savings... but then the business finds its electric bill has gone up! Apparently utilities have been targeting consumers who implement efficiency measures and bumping them down to the next smallest rate class. This might have been justified under the letter of the law, but feels like punishment for installing efficiency measures. The Maine PUC just addressed this situation, approving the use of a so-called "best-rate option" to ensure that efficiency upgrades don't result in higher bills.
Remember when Quoddy Bay LLC wanted to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Passamaquoddy Indian reservation in eastern Maine? They've just been sued for over $1 million. Plaintiff TRC Environmental Corp. sued for the ten months of services it provided in 2007 and 2008 for which Quoddy Bay allegedly never paid.
Also in Maine news, this headline: "Winds, squirrel and beaver challenge CMP". I'll leave it at that.
Nationally, wind turbine manufacturers are feeling the pinch just like all manufacturers. Two articles (USA Today and NYT Greenwire) today note a lack of expansion of wind-related manufacturing, and even layoffs. Apparently no manufacturer is immune from the times.
Energy powers society; society's choices shape energy policy. A blog about our energy resources and the choices they present for society.
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