Maine law requires the state to achieve specified reductions in its statewide net and gross annual greenhouse gas emissions over time. Gross annual emissions must drop to at least 45% below the 1990 gross level by 2030, falling to at least 80% below the 1990 level by 2050. Net annual greenhouse gas emissions may not exceed zero from 2045 on.
Separately, Maine's renewable portfolio standard law includes both goals and mandates that increasing portions of retail sales electricity must come from renewable resources over time. Statutory goals include that 80% of retail sales electricity in the State will come from renewable resources by 2030, and 100% by 2050. Enforceable mandates already require retail suppliers to cover increasing percentages of their retail sales with renewable energy certificates (RECs) from various classes of resource; for 2023, the total RPS mandate percentage exceeds 50%, rising to 84% by 2030.
Maine has already largely decarbonized its electric power sector. According to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, "Annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in the electric power sector have decreased by 91 percent since they peaked in 2002 largely by replacing high carbon fuels with lower carbon energy sources, primarily natural gas and renewable sources."
Even though the electric sector has largely cleaned up its act, heating and transportation continue to account for the bulk of fossil fuel use in Maine and associated carbon emissions. Transportation alone accounted for 49 percent of Maine's CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in 2019. Technologies like heat pumps and electric vehicles have potential to displace these fossil fuel uses, in ways that can reduce both carbon emissions and consumer costs -- a concept termed beneficial electrification.
Building on Maine's original beneficial electrification law enacted in 2019, the Beneficial Electrification Policy Act defines "beneficial electrification" as:
electrification of a technology or process that results in reduction in the use of a fossil fuel, including electrification of a technology or process that would otherwise require energy from a fossil fuel, and that provides a benefit to a utility, a ratepayer or the environment, without causing harm to utilities, ratepayers or the environment, by improving the efficiency of the electricity grid or reducing consumer costs or emissions, including carbon emissions.
Sponsored by Senator Nicole Grohoski, and co-sponsored by Representatives Steven Foster and Chris Kessler, the bipartisan An Act to Enact the Beneficial Electrification Policy Act was introduced in the 131st Maine Legislature as LD 1724. Following legislative debate, the bill was enacted into law and signed by Governor Janet Mills on June 26, 2023.
The new law includes several measures supporting beneficial electrification. It requires the Public Utilities Commission to advance beneficial electrification in order to achieve the emission reduction and renewable energy goals of the State, reduce energy costs to consumers and provide economic and climate benefits for all ratepayers. It also authorizes the Governor's Energy Office to petition the Public Utilities Commission to procure energy from renewable resources to achieve Maine's emission reduction and renewable energy goals and to meet reasonably expected growth in electric demand. According to the regional grid operator ISO New England, demand for power will increase by 23% over the next decade to account for increasing electrification of heating and transportation.
The law also requires the Efficiency Maine Trust to include a 3-year beneficial electrification plan for end uses of energy as part of the Trust's triennial planning process, including all beneficial electrification measures that are cost-effective and reliably reduce electricity rates over the life of the measures.
In addition to requiring the Public Utilities Commission to report annually on its activities under the new law, the Beneficial Electrification Policy Act also directs the Commission to conduct a study on how to cost-effectively provide consumer financing of beneficial electrification products, including products for energy efficiency, home or business energy storage, electric vehicle charging equipment and other distributed energy products. The law requires the study to include consideration of methods including, but not limited to, on-bill financing by standard-offer service providers or competitive electricity providers. It requires the Commission to report back to the legislative energy committee by January 5, 2024.
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