Maine
Maine’s electricity prices grew at the third fastest rate in the country, analysis shows
Between 2014 and 2024, the average retail price for electricity in Maine increased by the third highest rate in the country, according to an analysis by The Maine Monitor, surpassed only by California and Massachusetts.
The average retail price of electricity in Maine during the 10-year period rose from 12.65 cents/kWh to 19.62 cents, according to data collected by the federal Energy Information Administration. That’s an increase of 55 percent.
At the same time, the average retail price of electricity in the United States rose from 10.44 cents/kWh to 12.99, or 24 percent.
Maine’s rate of increase, then, was more than twice the national average. But it was considerably less than California, which saw its average price grow from 15.15 cents/kWh to 27 cents, a 78 percent jump.
In New England, Maine was followed by Massachusetts, which climbed from 15.35 cents to 23.98 cents, or 56 percent. Rhode Island grew at more than 54 percent, going from 15.41 cents in 2014, to 23.85 cents last year.
As electricity demand grows, affordable power is critical to a viable energy policy. But Maine’s energy policy is under fire: in Washington, the Trump administration is moving to withdraw most federal financial support for clean electricity in favor of boosting oil, coal and natural gas. It also has begun to challenge state efforts aimed at slowing global warming.
In Augusta, Maine continues to debate the impact of solar incentives on electricity bills.
Against that backdrop, why did Maine’s electricity prices grow so fast, and what might it mean for the quest to make electricity more affordable in the future?
Promoted by Gov. Janet Mills, Maine has set a goal of getting 100 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2040. This aggressive target aims to blunt the impacts of a warming climate, largely by cutting the harmful emissions from burning oil and natural gas. But this goal is juxtaposed against another primary objective of the state’s updated energy plan: “Deliver affordable energy for Maine people and businesses.”
A key way to achieve both objectives, state energy planners say, is to shift the way we fuel our cars and heat our buildings to efficient, electric-powered technologies powered by renewable energy sources. This strategy is called “beneficial electrification.” Measures include heat pumps for air and water, battery-powered vehicles, solar and wind generation and energy storage.
But a corollary to beneficial electrification is that electricity has to be affordable. Otherwise, residents and businesses have little incentive to switch.
Here’s the dilemma. At the same time Maine’s cost of electricity has been rising steeply, some of the proposed pathways to an all-electric future are facing unexpected challenges, both in terms of cost and availability. Examples include offshore wind, electric vehicles, heat pumps and new transmission lines.
“It’s fair to say we are at a crossroads,” said Bill Harwood, who retired in January as Maine’s Public Advocate. “We need to continue to subsidize renewables for the foreseeable future, because we need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. But we need to be careful and thoughtful. We can’t over-subsidize it, like we did with (solar).”
Despite the increases, Maine’s electricity prices remain among the lowest in New England, noted Dan Burgess, who heads the Governor’s Energy Office. The factors pushing up prices are exactly why the state is working to move away from imported fuels in favor of homegrown renewable energy, he said.
Blaming natural gas, but it’s complicated
First, why did Maine’s electricity prices rise at such a fast pace?
Harwood and other energy experts blame three main factors — natural gas availability and price, a too-generous solar incentive program and recovery costs from recent violent storms.
Natural gas is the leading cause, but the reasons are more complicated than they may appear.
More than half of New England’s generating capacity comes from gas-fired power plants. This status dates back 25 years, as the region sought to phase out expensive and polluting oil generation.
Public opposition to more nuclear plants eliminated that carbon-free option. But new gas supplies in Canada and the Marcellus shale fields in Pennsylvania during the 1990s led policy makers and investors to back generators that promised cleaner air and lower prices. They were also quick to build. Several new gas power plants went up, including ones in Westbrook, Rumford, Veazie and Bucksport that benefited from two new gas pipelines from Canada.
But because these power plants respond daily to changing electricity demand, they aren’t able to secure the lowest gas prices through long-term contracts. As more businesses and homes converted to gas, the region’s pipeline system didn’t have enough capacity on frigid winter days. In response, developers sought to build new lines, including one through western Massachusetts.
A plan for Maine electric customers to help pay for some of the new capacity was championed by Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican. But new pipelines drew stiff opposition from local residents and some Democratic politicians.
Environmental groups also said new gas capacity would lock in the region’s dependence on fossil fuels for decades. Following legal actions, the projects were largely abandoned, including the $3 billion Northeast Energy Direct in 2016 that would have added to Maine’s supply.
Maine pays more for natural gas
This left New England electric customers at a disadvantage, according to Rich Silkman, an economist and former head of the Competitive Energy consulting firm in Portland. Pipelines carrying gas into the region from Pennsylvania face a pipeline constraint beyond the Hudson River, causing wholesale prices to rise significantly on the coldest days. This, in turn, caused electricity prices to soar.
Maine suffers the greatest impact, Silkman said. Gas from the Marcellus region must head first into the Boston area, before being delivered north into Maine and Atlantic Canada. This adds to the wholesale cost of gas for generators here, meaning that they run only at costly times to meet peak demand. On top of that, Burgess pointed out, the region depends on expensive, overseas shipments of liquefied natural gas in the winter to supplement domestic supply.
Over the 10-year period, electricity supply has been the single biggest share of a home’s monthly power bill. It has ranged from roughly 6 cents/kWh for Central Maine Power and Versant Power/Bangor Hydro customers in 2015, to more than 16 cents in 2023, following the spike in global energy markets tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These supply costs made up between 45 percent and 59 percent of a total bill.
It’s easy to blame natural gas price volatility for higher electricity costs. But Silkman said natural gas opponents also should acknowledge that Maine’s higher than average electric rates are partly self-imposed, through public opposition and public policy.
“Maine tried to get a gas pipeline built,” he said, “but it had to go through Massachusetts. We could have easily expanded the gas pipeline and that would have solved our winter pricing problems.”
Today, President Trump’s declaration of an “energy emergency” has revived talk of pipeline expansion in the Northeast. Whether Trump can overcome continued opposition, and if companies that lost millions of dollars on earlier efforts will take another gamble, remain open questions.
Also pushing Maine bills up is the cost of recovering from more-intense storms linked to climate change. Trees falling on power lines, in the country’s most-forested state, is the prime culprit.
For example: Central Maine Power serves nearly eight in ten electric customers. The cost of restoring power and fixing storm damage hovered around $32 million a decade ago. It increased to nearly $72 million in 2020, to $119 million in 2022 and $168 million in 2023, according to the Portland Press Herald. To blunt the impact on customers, the Public Utilities Commission has approved a strategy to spread out cost recovery over multiple years. Even so, storm recovery will add $20 to the average monthly CMP bill this summer, according to the energy office.
Solar benefits depend on “perspective”
Beyond gas and storms, few recent energy policies have received as much scrutiny as net energy billing, a practice in which renewable energy generators are compensated for excess power they provide. The program was initially aimed at small, rooftop solar panels. But in 2019, lawmakers advocating for cleaner energy greatly expanded the size of projects that could qualify for net energy billing, as well as the level of compensation. Today, more than 15,000 projects qualify.
By that measure, net energy billing is a huge success. When there’s enough sunlight, those projects can together generate 70 percent of the output of the Seabrook nuclear plant. This exceeds a state energy plan goal of building 750 megawatts of so-called distributed generation.
But electric customers pay for the generous subsidies, recently estimated by the Maine Office of the Public Advocate at $220 million a year. The rate impact today on a typical CMP home customer is roughly $7 a month; it runs more than $20,000 a month for a large business, according to Central Maine Power.
“Maine made some mistakes,” said Barbara Alexander, a consumer energy consultant who advises AARP Maine. “We could have built all this solar with competitive bids for half the price. We missed out on how to do this in the most cost-effective way.”
Alexander lamented that Maine has invested so heavily in solar, but isn’t seeing much benefit in rates.
“The bogeyman here in New England is that, except for a couple of volatile years, natural gas is the fuel of choice for generation,” she said. “So either make gas cheaper or replace it. Neither of those things has happened.”
As costs mount, lawmakers have been working to dial back the solar subsidy program. They’re still at it this legislative session, considering measures — largely promoted by Republicans — that range from trimming the subsidies to killing the program altogether. Harwood, the former Public Advocate, said the solution is to put experts at the PUC in charge of a competitive bidding program, rather than leave complex pricing and market details to a part-time Legislature.
But one element that colors the debate over how solar policy contributes to high electric bills is, literally, perspective.
By law, the PUC must annually study the costs and benefits of net energy billing. The latest analysis featured three “perspectives,” on the value of the program — for society in general, for Maine specifically and for electric ratepayers. The study’s primary focus is on the general society perspective.
By that measure, the 2024 program costs were $202 million and the societal benefits were $194 million. This calculation included $53 million of benefits for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. By comparison, the ratepayer benefits were only $80 million. A bottom-line perspective: Reducing climate change emissions is good for the planet, but so far, has done little to lower your electric bill.
This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit civic news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.
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Equipment at Woodland Pulp in Maine roared back to life in mid-December after a 60 day pause in operations, and now one of the state’s largest mills is again accepting wood from New Brunswick producers.
“On Monday, we restarted purchasing fibre for the mill,” company spokesperson Scott Beal said.
“We’re back in the market. We are bringing in some fibre from suppliers in Canada, hardwood and chips.”
The general manager of the Carleton Victoria Forest Products Marketing Board says the news is welcome but not nearly enough to help embattled private woodlot owners in the province.
“Everything is good news at this point, but it is not as good as it could be,” Kim Jensen said. “We’re not back where we were.”
With sales down by about two-thirds from last year, Jensen said some woodlot owners are deciding to pack it up, while others struggle on.
“We have had some older ones who’ve left, they’ve just, they’ve had enough and they’ve left,” she said.
“The people who have invested in the business, have bought processors and forwarders, they have to stay in business. And if you have $1,000,000 worth of equipment there, your payments are $40,000 to $60,000 a month and you have to work. You can’t just go somewhere else and get a job.”
Duty rates on New Brunswick wood were set at 35 per cent in September, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced an additional 10 per cent tariff on lumber imports.
The sudden increase was too much for Woodland Pulp to bear. The mill relied on New Brunswick wood for about a third of its supply prior to October.
“It certainly adds cost to the business and, you know, like other wood users, I mean we’re always looking and hoping and trying to source fibre at the least cost,” Beal told CBC News in October.
The Baileyville-based mill has rehired all of the 144 people laid off during its two month shut-down, and Beal said it will likely take some time to ramp up to accept the amount of wood it previously did.
And with the difficult and uncertain tariff environment, Beal said, it’s hard to say how long the mill would be able to continue purchasing Canadian wood.
“It’s a very challenging pulp market,” he said.
“The tariffs remain in place. That hasn’t changed. So it’s not reasonable to think that that won’t be a headwind for the business.”
The federal government did create a $1.25 billion fund to help the industry survive, but Jensen says that hasn’t meant support for individual private woodlot owners.
In October, Jensen told CBC News that sales of timber by the marketing board’s members totalled about $1 million for all of 2024. They have fallen to about $200,000 over the past 12 months.
And the cost of cross-border business has continued to rise.
Before Woodland Pulp stopped taking Canadian timber, the company had a lumberyard in Florenceville ,where producers could drop off wood. Woodland would then take responsibility for shipping it the rest of the way to the mill.
Now it’s up to individual producers to source transportation and to arrange a broker to help meet cross-border requirements. That’s adding between $60 and $100 per load of timber heading to the U.S.
“The markets are tightening up, and the prices are going down, and you can only go down so far before it’s just done,” Jensen said.
“A mill can stop and start up, maybe. But a private guy who loses his equipment, he’s lost everything. He’s not coming back.”
The Maine nonprofit Defend Our Health is taking on the role of watchdog to make sure companies and stores are not selling products that are now banned in Maine because they contain toxic “forever chemicals.”
As of Jan. 1, Maine joined Minnesota as the first states to ban thousands of everyday products containing toxic PFAS chemicals.
The new ban includes children’s toys, cosmetics, cookware, and cleaning products. It also includes reusable water bottles, upholstery, clothing, and feminine products.
The National Institute of Health says even trace amounts of PFAS have been linked to low birth weights, compromised immune systems, cancer, and other adverse health effects.
Cookware in a store (WGME)
Defend Our Health says so far, most stores in Maine are complying with the law.
“We’ve seen a lot of the physical retailers complying with the ban. We have seen, for example, the PFAS-containing cookware being pulled from the shelves,” said Emily Carey Perez de Alejo, with Defend Our Health.
It is also not allowed in Maine to sell and ship banned products online to people in Maine like frying pans coated with PFAS.
Defend Our Health says a lot of online retailers have marked PFAS products not deliverable to Maine, while others have tried to comply, but missed a few products.
“From some retailers we have seen a wide array of PFAS-containing cookware still available for delivery to Maine,” Carey Perez de Alejo said. “So, we’ve reached out to the state to report some of these violators. We’re going to be reaching out to the companies. Hopefully, it’s just an oversight and they will be taking action to correct and come into compliance.”
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection says it will be reviewing the information received from Defend Our Health.
The Safer Chemicals Program manager says the Maine DEP will investigate to ensure no banned products are being sold in Maine, either in stores or online.
A new state report offers a series of recommendations to expand existing mobile home parks in Maine and build new ones, allow homeowners to obtain traditional mortgages at more favorable rates and overhaul the state’s oversight of parks.
The 30-page report, written by the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future and mandated by legislation passed last year, is intended to be a blueprint for future proposals as lawmakers seek to protect the roughly 45,000 Maine residents who live in mobile home parks.
It will be presented to the Housing and Economic Development Committee this month.
Mobile home parks in Maine and across the country — often considered the last form of unsubsidized affordable housing — are increasingly being purchased by out-of-state investors who raise the monthly lot rents, in some cases doubling or tripling prices, according to national data.
Park residents, often low-income families or seniors on a fixed income, own their homes but not the land they sit on and residents are essentially helpless against rent increases.
“If they’re forced to lose their housing because the rents get too high, it’s hard to see where they’d be able to go,” said Greg Payne, senior housing adviser for the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.
The state is feverishly trying to build tens of thousands of housing units in the coming years, but Payne said in an interview it’s just as important to “protect the housing that we do have.”
“If we lose any of our affordable housing stock, that’s going to make our challenge even greater,” he said.
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR OWNERS, RESIDENTS
Many state officials would like to see more mom-and-pop or cooperatively owned manufactured housing communities, especially as the state tries to ramp up production.
But according to the report, the number of locally owned communities has been dwindling, and smaller owners and developers frequently struggle to increase available housing in their parks. Boosting supply could also help lower costs for existing residents.
As with all construction, it has gotten expensive.
“There are plenty of owners who I think would be willing to expand if the math worked,” Payne said. “If we’re able to help with that, it creates more units that we desperately need across the state and creates the opportunity to spread existing costs across more households.”
The report recommends, among other things, making it easier for park owners to access MaineHousing construction loans, which state statute currently prohibits.
The office also suggested developing a subsidy program that would give owners a forgivable loan if they agree to charge income-restricted lot rents to income-restricted households.
‘TOO GOOD TO MISS’
The report also recommends allowing mobile home buyers to take out traditional mortgage loans.
Historically, loans for manufactured homes have been titled as personal property or “chattel” loans, similar to cars. These loans, according to the report, typically have shorter terms, higher interest rates, fewer lenders to choose from and inferior consumer protection.
Over the years, construction technology and government regulations have evolved and factory-built houses are now often comparable to site-built housing, according to the report.
The price gap between the two is also narrowing, with many mobile homes selling for well over $200,000.
Payne said he spoke to an Old Orchard Beach resident whose interest rate is more than 11%, and is paying about $640 a month for a $60,000 loan, on top of her monthly lot rent. Comparatively, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, the current interest rate on a 30-year mortgage is about 6.15%. That would save her hundreds of dollars a month.
“We don’t often have the opportunity to increase affordability and have nobody losing,” Payne said. “It’s an opportunity that could be too good to miss.”
‘SYSTEMIC LACK OF SUPPORT’
The report recommends an overhaul or “reimagining” of state regulation and oversight of mobile home communities to better serve residents.
Currently, the Maine Manufactured Housing Board is in charge of licensing and inspecting parks, while landlord and tenant issues and consumer protection claims are enforced by the Office of the Maine Attorney General or the court system.
But according to the report there is a “systemic lack of support” from state government in addressing some of the more common problems in parks — poor living conditions, untenable community rules and fees, disregard of state laws — and attempts to get help from either agency often result in referrals elsewhere.
“This pattern of circular referrals, rarely leading to support, often leaves park residents feeling isolated and unheard,” the report says.
The office recommends that the Legislature transfer the responsibility for certification, technical assistance and regulatory coordination from the Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation, where the board is currently housed, to the Maine Office of Community Affairs, which would also serve as a “first call” for residents seeking assistance.
Compliance with state rules would be handled by the attorney general’s office, which may need to find ways to provide more legal support to homeowners.
Finally, the report recommends directing more private resources toward supporting a housing attorney at Pine Tree Legal Assistance who has expertise in mobile home park issues.
LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS
Mobile home parks have been a hot-button issue in the last few Legislative sessions.
Lawmakers last year passed a series of bills designed to protect mobile homeowners, including one that gives park residents the “right of first refusal” if their community goes up for sale.
In addition to the recommendations outlined in the recent report, the state is seeking to collect more data about the state’s parks.
Historically, the Maine Manufactured Housing Board has not tracked whether the parks are owned by resident co-ops, out-of-state corporations or Maine-based operators. It also collected no information about how many lots are in each park, vacancies or average lot rents.
That information is now required in order to license a park.
Another bill, which has resulted in confusion and some retaliatory rent increases, requires owners to provide 90 days written notice of a rent increase and establishes a process for residents to request mediation if the increase is more than the Consumer Price Index plus 1%. While owners are required by the new law to act in good faith, they are not prevented from moving forward with an increase.
Efforts to institute statewide rent control failed in the last session, in part due to Maine’s long history of local control, but many communities, including Brunswick, Saco and Sanford, have passed rent control measures or moratoriums on rent increases as they grapple with how to protect residents.
The state report includes a model rent stabilization ordinance for municipalities but no mandate.
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