Public Advocate Bill Harwood has witnessed plenty of changes while serving as Maine’s utility ratepayer watchdog under Gov. Janet Mills and working on energy issues for 40-plus years.
Harwood, 72, told the Bangor Daily News he is planning to retire early next year to spend more time with family and friends. He will step down when his term ends Jan. 31, 2025, opening a key position for Mills to fill amid rising electricity costs in a state that is also aggressively working to meet its climate goals.
Mills appointed Harwood, who lives in Yarmouth, to the ratepayer advocate role in January 2022. Harwood has also taught utility regulation and administrative law as an adjunct professor at the University of Maine School of Law.
Harwood reflected Wednesday on his career and shared with the Bangor Daily News his concerns for Maine’s energy future. Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How did you first get interested in utilities and energy and working in this type of field?
In 1979, shortly after graduating from law school, I began work as an associate at Verrill Dana in Portland. At that time, Verrill had a large and successful energy and utilities practice and, more specifically, the regulatory issues surrounding the Maine utilities’ investment in the controversial Seabrook nuclear plant were creating lots of legal work. During my first several years at Verrill working on the Seabrook project, I became fascinated by the intersection of law, economics and politics that comprises utility regulation and ended up devoting most of my career to energy and utilities work.
What are a few major and a few more subtle changes you’ve observed with the utility industry over your four-plus decades working in the field?
The most obvious one is the trend to deregulate or limit regulation of certain activities or operations that were traditionally fully regulated. This includes the restructuring of the electric utility industry in the late ’90s where the supply side of the business was largely de-regulated. A second major change is the shift in regulatory power from the states to the federal government. Over the years, FERC [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] has played a larger and larger role in regulating the electric industry.
What are you most concerned about with Maine’s utility and energy market as you prepare to retire?
My two biggest concerns are the rising cost of electricity to help meet our climate goals and the impact of these rising costs on low-income ratepayers. We need to be sure that all our subsidies of renewable energy are no larger than necessary and we need to expand low income discount programs that keep the cost of electricity affordable to those least able to pay the higher costs.
What opportunities do you think Maine and/or New England lawmakers and regulators have to improve things for ratepayers in the near future? Are there any specific proposals you would like to see implemented?
First, to adequately fund low-income programs to close the affordability gap. Second, to limit the expansion of natural gas to help limit [greenhouse gas] emissions. Third, to reform the competitive electricity provider market to limit the amount CEPs charge above the standard offer price.
What are your retirement plans currently looking like in terms of family, friends and hobbies?
I look forward to spending more time with my spouse, my five children, my three grandchildren and many good friends, all of whom have been beyond patient with all that I have missed in their lives during my career. It’s time for me to put them first. And I look forward to reading bedtime stories to my grandchildren.
