AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine House of Representatives on Tuesday endorsed a watered-down proposal to study the future of natural gas in the state after the state’s ratepayer advocate sought to ban new pipelines starting next year.
The bill was backed by Public Advocate Bill Harwood and initially sought to prevent the Maine Public Utilities Commission from approving natural gas pipelines outside existing service areas starting in 2025 while also making regulators study how natural gas fits into Maine’s climate goals.
After pushback from the natural gas industry and the Governor’s Energy Office, the bill was amended to instead only require the commission to conduct a study considering future gas utility investments. It also would create a commission to consider creating a “just and equitable transition for Maine’s workforce impacted by state energy policies and goals.”
It passed the House along party lines Tuesday in a 80-67 vote. Rep. Sophie Warren, D-Scarborough, supported the bill but lamented how it was “significantly watered down” following lobbying from the gas industry. Warren criticized her fellow lawmakers and the Mills administration for a “lack of political will.”
“Maine won’t wait, but here we are,” she said in a nod to Gov. Janet Mills’ “Maine Won’t Wait” climate goals.
Those goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050 while achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. But the Democratic governor’s energy office testified in January that large employers “have fewer options for decarbonizing their power needs” in opposing the measure.
Mills has been a key figure in energy debates. During her 2022 campaign, she signed an “energy choice” pledge from a fossil-fuel interest group. Rep. Steven Foster, R-Dexter, said Tuesday he appreciated the changes to the initial plan he called “very bad” but still criticized the amended proposal by saying the commission already does much of the called-for work.
Natural gas is used to generate around 50 percent of the power in the New England grid. Other than wood, it is the cheapest source of heating fuel in Maine, with a price currently ranging between $12.36 to $22.20 per million Btu.
There are four natural gas utilities in Maine, with major service areas in southern Maine, Bangor and its surrounding communities and the Kennebec Valley region. Construction began a decade ago on the pipeline network in the latter region that is now run by Summit Natural Gas of Maine.
Across the country, emissions from natural gas consumption represented 80 percent of direct fossil fuel emissions from residential and commercial sources in 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found last year.
