“We are already seeing catastrophic sea level rise, more, and more severe, hurricanes and storms, droughts, wildfires, along with species extinction, and here in Maine threats to fisheries from rapid warming of the Gulf of Maine. We need to take strong action to reduce our carbon emissions as rapidly as possible, to sustain a habitable planet for ourselves and future generations,” Michael Howard, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, and an External Associate of the Climate Change Institute, at the University of Maine, wrote in an opinion piece published in the Bangor Daily News. “Collins, unlike many of her colleagues in the Republican Party, is not a climate change denier. On the contrary, she has shown leadership on climate change in the past,” he added.
Back in 2009, for example, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) co-sponsored the Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal (CLEAR) Act, which would have created a cap-and-trade program regulating upstream producers of fossil fuels. The following year, a report from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that the legislation would benefit the wallets of nearly all Americans, including low-income and middle-class households. “The results of this study will help reassure the American public that we can accomplish the goal of putting a price on carbon without bankrupting American families and businesses,” Sen. Collins reacted at the time.
This year, she spoke with Chris Wright, secretary for the Department of Energy, on behalf of Form Energy’s 85 MW energy storage project in Maine’s Lincoln Technology Park. The project, the largest long-term energy storage facility in the world, received a $147 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, and the company expected to receive clean energy tax credits for the project. Sen. Collins said she “pointed out that it aligns with the administration’s energy policies, would help improve the reliability of the New England electric grid, and would be beneficial in using a shuttered paper mill in a rural area of the state.”
Howard elaborated, “Such battery storage, one of several such projects in Maine, is key to maintaining stability for the grid, as we face rising energy demand, and as we phase out fossil fuel and phase in solar and wind power, which need a backup because they are intermittent.”
Photo Courtesy Form Energy
Form Energy’s project is not the only one in the state that would benefit from continuing the clean energy tax credits. According to the Citizens Climate Lobby, there are 92 clean energy projects in the state, representing $5.7 billion in investment and supporting 5,500 direct and indirect jobs. According to the American Clean Power Association and ICF, by 2035, the tax credits and other federal clean energy programs would add $6 billion to the state’s economy and boost Mainers’ income by $2 billion, while creating 3,500 jobs per year.
According to the Clean Investment Monitor, 81% of planned projects are not yet operational, with some not even built yet, making these projects particularly vulnerable to disruption. “If the clean energy tax credits are effectively eliminated, Mainers will not only lose jobs, and fall behind in our climate mitigation and adaptation goals, we can also expect a nearly 5 percent rise in our energy bills by 2029,” Howard wrote about the potential impact.
He concluded, “Now is the time to urge senators, especially Sen. Collins, to oppose the budget bill passed by the House, and to reinstate the clean energy tax credits. There are other ways to balance the budget than by cutting investments that we need to tackle the climate emergency, and that give taxpayers a four-fold return on investment.”
Howard is not the only Mainer to recently call on Sen. Collins to defend the tax credits. In early June, 70 representatives of Maine solar and energy storage companies wrote in a letter to the senator, “We realize that Congress has an important obligation to cut spending to balance the budget and reduce taxes. However, cutting solar tax credits would be counterproductive.”
The industry leaders added that solar is among the cheapest and fastest ways to meet soaring energy demand, which Maine expects to double by mid-century. “If the solar and storage tax credits are reduced or eliminated, it would be devastating to the solar industry, which would cause a ripple effect of negative consequences for Maine and our country,” the representatives wrote.
