Maine

Quaker Meetings, in conjunction with Speak Truth To CMP, staged a protest at Central Maine Power’s headquarters to protest what it calls the utility’s attempts to undermine solar in the state.

Environmental groups are pushing back on both the dismantling of net metering and increased interconnection fees on solar owners, in the courts and in public hearings.

Local advocates blasted the program and state regulators, calling on lawmakers to use the opportunity to repeal the rule.

The Pine Tree State’s Public Service Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing on December 12 to discuss the proposed changes to the fee schedule for Central Maine Power.

The 4.6 MW-AC project will supply 20% of the power for a municipal utility in Central Maine.

After more than a year of wrangling and a veto by an intractably anti-solar governor, the Pine Tree State’s legislature split over whether to override the veto of the bill that ensconces into law a long-term solar compensation plan. As a result, the bill dies.

A first phase of the 9.9 MW project is expected to be completed by the end of the year, as one of the first under a 50 MW pilot community-owned renewables program.

A coalition of 24 groups has asked state regulators to reconsider scrapping net metering in 2018, as advocates gear up for a push in the state legislature.

In response to the codifying of net-metering rules that critics say will destroy Maine’s solar industry, the Natural Resources Council of Maine said it will take the fight to the statehouse in an effort to head off the changes with a new solar law.

In his ongoing efforts to eliminate the underpinnings of a successful solar industry, Maine’s buffoonish chief executive slams solar on Twitter and suggests all Public Utilities Commissioners resign in the wake of a Maine solar compromise reached last month.