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Joe Baldacci is a practicing lawyer and a lifelong resident of Bangor. He served for 12 years on the Bangor City Council — including twice as mayor and council chair. He represents District 9 in the Maine Senate.
Home rule is extremely important. The right of each Mainer to decide which lawful energy source they wish to heat their own homes with is fundamental.
Mainers should have the right to decide how their homes and businesses will be heated without being told by an overreaching government what they can and cannot do in their home.
Respect and reason should carry the day as it relates to energy policy.
This fundamental approach is why I am in support of An Act to Preserve Heating and Energy Choice by Prohibiting a Municipality from Prohibiting a Particular Energy System or Energy Distributor, LD 556.
This bill received the majority, bipartisan vote of the Joint Select Committee on State and Local Government. Yet, the Legislature adjourned Wednesday evening without finalizing a decision on this important bill. It received positive votes in both the House and the Senate and needed just one more enactment vote in the Senate.
When the Legislature meets again, we have one more opportunity to move this bill to Gov. Janet Mills’ desk. We must refrain from turning away from the reality of pocketbook expenses. Additionally, we must refrain from telling Mainers that the Legislature knows better regarding those expenses.
According to a survey conducted by Digital Research Inc., 87 percent of voters indicate that state government should allow Mainers to choose how they heat their homes and businesses.
Cities and towns in other states have attempted to restrict the way their residents heat and energize their homes and businesses. Not only are these types of restrictions fundamentally unfair, but they also have the potential to negatively disrupt the energy market for the entire state.
I believe Maine needs to continue to adopt an “all of the above approach” as it relates to energy policy to make sure home and business heating is affordable for the future.
When cities and towns have tried to restrict how we heat or energize our homes, businesses, or public buildings, this has often been accomplished through changes to building codes. Outright bans on specific energy sources in new construction, remodels, and even existing housing and commercial buildings can also lead to higher costs.
It is important to clarify what this bill does not do. It does not interfere with the authority for local building codes, which must follow the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code, which permits by law regulation of heating and energy installations based on safety. It does not interfere with how municipalities may regulate the placement of utility pipes or wires in the public right of way based on the safety of the traveling public. And it does not restrict local authority over the siting of commercial energy generating facilities.
We do not have to look very far into our collective past to recall what happens when municipalities make the decision on energy access. We can recall the dynamics around Dragon Cement shuttering their facility in Thomaston due to high energy prices and the cancellation of a natural gas pipeline to the area.
When we block competition, investment, and innovation, we generally end up paying for it in the end. We can combat climate change, protect jobs and make home and business heating affordable. We must do better.
This is a consumer issue. Energy choice is critical to ensuring that Mainers can afford to heat their homes and businesses. With rising costs in nearly everything we need to purchase to maintain a decent quality of life, Mainers should not be forced to buy one type of expensive heating source.
