Maine utility regulators unanimously rejected on Tuesday an electric utility’s proposal to proactively report high consumption that signals a marijuana growing operation to law enforcement officials in an attempt to aid police crackdown on illicit operations.

The three-member Public Utilities Commission cited concerns about customers who use large amounts of electricity for legitimate reasons being targeted because of the reports. Commissioners opted to stick with the status quo in which utilities provide consumer data only when presented with a law enforcement subpoena that was vetted by a judge.

Versant Power floated the idea because it says it has a high success rate of identifying marijuana grow houses but no ability to communicate that to police. Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster called it a “good first step.” Other supporters included Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who has aggressively pressed the FBI about the illegal marijuana operations.

Versant spokesperson Judy Long said Tuesday the utility promoted the discussion “strictly in the interest of public and worker safety.”

“After the discussion and today’s ruling in that docket, we have clear direction from the commission, and we will remain vigilant in protecting customers’ private information while continuing to work as mandated with law enforcement,” she said.

The proposal was part of a wide-ranging docket taken up by commissioners on Tuesday.

It came as law enforcement officials target marijuana grow operations in which rural homes in Maine are purchased, gutted and transformed into sophisticated, high-yield indoor farms.

Twenty states that legalized marijuana have seen a spike in illegal marijuana grow operations, and law enforcement officials have busted dozens of them in Maine. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration are investigating any ties these operations might have to criminal syndicates including Chinese-organized crime.

Marijuana plants found recently in an illegal grow operation in the Whitefield area. Courtesy of Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office

Maine utility regulators on Tuesday unanimously rejected a proposal by Versant Power to alert law enforcement to high electricity consumption that could indicate illegal marijuana growing operations.

The Public Utilities Commission considered changes to a set of rules governing billing and payments, service disconnection, dispute resolution and other practices. One provision – the confidentiality of customer information – drew the most attention because it could have authorized utilities to give law enforcement information about suspected illegal activity, such as cannabis growing operations that draw tremendous amounts of electricity for lights and fans that sometimes run 24 hours a day.

“It would not be appropriate for utilities to report high-usage customers as Versant has proposed,” PUC Chairman Philip L. Bartlett II said at an agency meeting. “Such customers may have other legitimate reasons for high usage and using such broad criteria would likely result in the privacy of many innocent customers being violated.”

Commissioner Patrick Scully agreed.

“I would be concerned that reports based solely on usage could expose customers engaged in lawful activities to criminal investigations,” he said. “This is the job of law enforcement, not of utilities.”

If law enforcement has a reason to investigate a particular property, it can seek through a lawfully issued subpoena records maintained by a utility, Scully said.

Commissioner Carolyn Gilbert also voted against the Versant proposal, saying it could wrongly affect customers with high electricity bills unrelated to marijuana growing.

“After the discussion and today’s ruling, we have clear direction from the commission and we will remain vigilant in protecting customers’ private information while continuing to work as mandated with law enforcement,” Judy Long, a spokesperson for Versant, said.

Versant proposed to allow a utility to disclose to third parties such as law enforcement agencies, “pursuant to lawful process,” the name, address, email, telephone number, electricity or gas use, payment and credit history, and financial or medical condition of a customer without their consent.

In testimony to the PUC, Versant Power said utilities should be permitted to disclose customer information to law enforcement when there is “good faith belief” of a crime. Illegal cannabis growing operations are an “escalating problem” in Versant’s service territory in northern and central Maine, the utility said.

Versant can identify such “operations with a high degree of certainty” based on rural residential service addresses; installation of, or requests for, large amounts of power; damage to Versant equipment caused by high usage or improper customer installations; extremely high energy consumption and other commercial activities; and installations unusual for a residence, it said.

Central Maine Power Co., the state’s largest utility, disagreed with what it said is Versant’s suggestion that privacy provisions in current regulations do not allow utilities to report a customer’s name or address when a crime is committed against its employees or agents. “CMP does not read such a prohibition in the rule as written,” it said.

Energy consumption at illegal grow sites is often more than 3,000 kilowatt-hours a month, Versant said.

The utility said it has received subpoenas for information about illegal cannabis growing operations that “have been consistent with the accounts and locations Versant was aware of.” But the current confidentiality rule “chills Versant’s ability to cooperate with law enforcement to resolve this serious issue,” it said.

Somerset County, Sheriff Dale Lancaster, whose deputies have executed search warrants on 21 marijuana operations, said law enforcement works best with community support, and he described Versant’s proposal as a “good first step.”

This story will be updated.

Copy the Story Link

Roger Mitchell, dean of the Maine Energy Marketers Association’s Technical Education Center, talks about heat pump training at the Brunswick facility on Thursday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Maine’s ambitious efforts to expand heat pump use to reduce carbon emissions from buildings are outpacing the supply of technicians needed to install and fix the equipment.

Gretchen Larman, of Yarmouth, said she waited about six weeks this summer for a fix to her electric heat pump that leaked coolant. She had to do without air conditioning during the occasional heat waves.

“It’s a very long July to be without anything,” she said.

As she searched for a repair service, she was told she’d have to wait weeks, often getting a similar message: “We are so backed up. This is the best we can do.”

Employers and schools say they can’t train enough heat pump technicians.

While about 2,510 people worked in heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) – including heat pump technicians – in Maine in 2020, that number is projected to drop to 2,350 by 2030, according to a database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Last year, Maine had already dipped below that estimate, with nearly 2,100 people working in those jobs, according to the state Department of Labor.

Yet the number of heat pumps installed in Maine has more than doubled, from fewer than 50,000 a few years ago to 100,000 in July 2023, two years ahead of scheduled targets set by Gov. Janet Mills. She set a target of installing another 175,000 heat pumps in Maine by 2027, bringing the total number to 320,000 if the target is reached.

Scott Libby, owner of Royal River Heat Pumps in Freeport, questions that goal. “There’s a limit on our capacity,” he said.

AN AGING WORKFORCE 

Libby says part of the blame for the shortage of HVAC workers is Maine’s aging workforce, which affects most industries. As many as 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day in the United States, with the youngest in that generation reaching 60 this year, emptying workplaces with retirements.

Adults who are 65 and older make up 9.4% of Maine’s workforce, compared to 6.6% nationally.

Brandon Stinchfield, lead technician for Horizon Homes, installs heat pumps at Homestead Village in Westbrook on Thursday. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Advertisement

The pandemic, too, made things worse as stalled manufacturing damaged supply chains.

“The beginning of COVID, that just magnified it,” Libby said. “It’s been aging out for years.”

The average age of HVAC professionals is about 54, according to the Northeast Technical Institute (NTI), which said a “significant number of HVAC technicians are expected to retire within the next decade.” The institute trains workers for HVAC, health care and other industries in Maine. 

The demand for workers will only increase. Mills announced in July that Maine will receive between $45 million and $72 million from Washington to install more electric heat pumps. Efficiency Maine, the quasi-state agency that administers energy efficiency programs, estimates that with a budget of $42 million, it could convert about 7,750 homes from fossil fuels to being entirely heated and cooled with heat pumps.

A typical home will be outfitted with one to four heat pumps depending on its size, condition and layout, Efficiency Maine said.

WHERE IS TRAINING AVAILABLE?

HVAC training takes different forms, with longer courses of instruction and briefer classes that lead to certification.

Chris Sorois listens as Roger Mitchell teaches a course at Maine Energy Marketers Association Technical Education Center in Brunswick on Monday. The center is offering a 40-hour Heat Pump Training course later this month and again in October. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Welcome Richardson, an HVAC instructor at NTI, said students with training in heat pumps, gas and oil heating, and air conditioning – a seven-month program – often land a job the day they graduate.

“Everybody is looking for employees,” he said. “People who have training to do heat pumps, gas, oil, air conditioning, it’s hard to find people with that capability.”

“People who do go into the trades, especially HVAC, it’s got great pay. Maybe a lot of people don’t know that,” Richardson said.

At its Technical Education Center in Brunswick, the Maine Energy Marketers Association trains HVAC workers in the classroom and in a lab where equipment is broken and fixed. The center has offered six or seven classes a year for five years, drawing about 20 students in each class, Dean Roger Mitchell said.

It’s driven by demand that he said is “pretty steady.”

A 40-hour, one-week session leads to certification and being a registered vendor with Efficiency Maine. The classes cover sales, installation, repair and other skills. Students are referred by their employers, word of mouth, or the result of an online search and military veterans, Mitchell said.

WANTED: WORKERS WITH A MECHANICAL APTITUDE

Libby, of Royal River Heat Pumps, employs about 30 installers, including seven licensed electricians. “I could hire 10 if I have the right 10,” he said.

He said starting pay is $30 an hour, rising to $40 an hour over time. He pays 100% of medical and dental insurance and offers a 401(k) retirement plan and flexible work scheduling.

“I really don’t know how to make it more appealing,” he said.

Students listen as Roger Mitchell teaches a course about refrigeration systems at the Maine Energy Marketers Association Technical Education Center in Brunswick on Monday. The center recommends students take this course before enrolling in the 40-hour heat pump training. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

His workforce includes former carpenters and car mechanics who have a mechanical aptitude. “It’s really a nice job. It’s relatively clean. You’re not going home all covered with grease and soot.”

Libby said he typically finds workers from his employees, who tell friends and former co-workers.

“One employee is responsible for three others,” he said. “They built jeeps and four-wheelers together, driving them through the woods and breaking them and fixing them. Word of mouth is the best thing.”

Heat pumps extract heat from outside air and run it through a compressor that makes it hotter before pumping it indoors. In the summer, it can operate in reverse, pulling heat from inside a building and pumping it outside, cooling the indoor spaces. As state and federal officials set increasingly strict greenhouse gas emissions targets, buildings – and their use of natural gas or oil for heating and cooling – are being redesigned or retrofitted to improve energy efficiency and accommodate electric heat pumps.

Policymakers and environmentalists are targeting building emissions because of the scale: Residential and commercial buildings last year consumed about 28% of all U.S. end-use energy, or energy directly used by homes, buildings, vehicles and industrial applications, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

RAPID EMPLOYMENT GROWTH PREDICTED

Nationally, employment of heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers is projected to grow 6% from 2022 to 2032, faster than the average for all occupations, according to the  U.S. Department of Labor.

Roger Mitchell, dean of the Maine Energy Marketers Association’s Technical Education Center, talks about heat pump training at the Brunswick facility on Thursday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

About 37,700 openings for heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers are projected each year, on average, over the decade, according to the federal government.

Many of the openings, with a median pay last year of $57,300, are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire, the Labor Department said.

In Maine, HVAC jobs pay an average of $59,000 annually.

The pressure is on to hire heat pump technicians. The U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of 25 governors, announced in September 2023 that members agreed to reach 20 million heat pump installations by 2030.

Government subsidies help drive demand. Federal and state incentives of up to $10,600 for heat pump installation, with Efficiency Maine providing rebates of up to $8,000 that subsidizes between 40% and 80% of a project’s cost depending on income.

Federal tax credits of up to $2,600 also are available.

And money from Washington is used for job training in the green energy business. Portland Adult Education, for example, received $416,179 for its renewable energy pre-apprenticeship and other programs by adding heat-pump and thermal-focused training. The school plans to use the funds to prepare up to 150 people for jobs in the clean energy industry.

In total, six programs will share $2 million: Maine Math and Science Alliance in Augusta, Biddeford School Department and Biddeford Adult Education, Oxford Hills and Nezinscot Adult Education, PassivhausMaine in Freeport, Portland Adult Education and the University of Maine in Orono.

Larman said difficulties getting repair service are perplexing.

“We’re making such a huge thing to put these in, but we don’t have the people available to service these units,” she said.

Copy the Story Link