by Fred Bever
Maine Public news story
The battle over solar power’s future in Maine is moving to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
Last month, lawmakers who support existing incentives for residential solar power generation failed to override Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a plan to preserve them. That means a new rule proposed by the Maine Public Utilities Commission will go into effect in January.
Solar advocates such as Pete Didisheim of the Natural Resources Council of Maine say the new rule will stop in its tracks the build-out of Maine’s already anemic solar power sector.
“We believe that it’s an affront to the ability of Maine people to seek ways to generate their own power. And it would in fact penalize and tax people for pursuing solar energy,” he says.
The NRCM is joining with th Conservation Law Foundation and Maine’s largest solar generation installer, ReVision Energy, to appeal the PUC’s solar rule to the state’s highest court. And while the state’s largest utility, Central Maine Power, fought against the Legislature’s proposed replacement, it is not filing a brief in the court case.
