Mar 03 - Portland Press Herald



The Legislature's Utilities and Energy Committee heard qualified support Tuesday for a bill to designate several areas of Maine as energy corridors and set rules for how the state could consider adding corridors.

The bill, L.D. 1786, sponsored by committee co-chairman Sen. Barry Hobbins, D-Saco, reflects the majority findings of a report by the Commission to Study Energy Infrastructure, which met in the fall.

The bill and the majority report would designate "statutory corridors" for energy transmission: the Interstate 95 corridor (including the Maine Turnpike), the I-295 corridor, and a corridor from Searsport to the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone.

The bill would establish a review panel that would approve only energy infrastructure projects that "enhance opportunities for energy generation within the state," and "significantly and measurably reduce electric rates or relevant energy costs for residents and businesses within the state."

 Companies could propose energy corridors in other areas.

Much of the discussion concerned how Maine might remain competitive as an energy supplier in a market that will likely soon include a larger Hydro-Quebec. If approved by regulators this spring, the Canadian power company will buy the production capacity of the smaller New Brunswick Power.

Rep. Ken Fletcher, R-Winslow, noted that Hydro-Quebec will soon have a wind power generation capacity of 4,000 megawatts, dwarfing Maine's goal of 2,000 megawatts by 2015. Because Hydro-Quebec supplies peak energy to heat homes in the winter, it has surplus electricity to transmit to Boston and points south during that region's summertime peak demand.

"How are we going to make sure that we aren't left on the side of the road, watching that energy pass away?" Fletcher asked Public Utilities Commissioner Jack Cashman.

Cashman said that Hydro-Quebec could go around Maine to reach the lucrative southern New England market, as the company is doing in negotiations to build a transmission line through New Hampshire.

Several people, including many lawmakers, testified that it is important for the proposed oversight rules to apply to projects on private land as well as along public corridors.

A Central Maine Power Co. representative, David Allen, asked the committee to continue allowing it to use short sections of statutory corridors to improve reliability, even though the infrastructure developments are not meant to lower the cost of electricity for Maine ratepayers.

The company introduced an amendment to the bill that would allow it and other transmission and distribution companies to be exempted from the requirements.

MaineToday Media State House Reporter Ethan Wilensky-Lanford can be contacted at 620-7015 or at:

ewlanford@mainetoday.com

Originally published by By ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD Kennebec Journal.

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