Today, the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) terminated the procurement of a transmission line to enable the development of new wind resources in Aroostook County. In response, the Natural Resources Council of Maine issued the following statement from Climate & Clean Energy Director Jack Shapiro:
“Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing Maine’s woods, waters, wildlife, and communities. Developing the large untapped wind resource in Aroostook County is an urgent step toward averting the worst impacts to our state by accelerating the transition to lower-cost, Maine-made clean energy.
Achieving the goals of the Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program will help the region move away from our overreliance on expensive and dirty fossil fuels like natural gas and will bring significant new economic benefits to Aroostook County.
We hope the PUC will move forward with a new procurement to bring the enormous wind energy resources in Aroostook County online. These projects should serve as an example of how our region can collaborate and move forward with well-planned transmission and clean energy investments that will deliver lower-cost electricity with indisputable climate benefits.”
