LePage vetoes solar energy bill, two others

[jpak]

http://bangordailynews.com/2014/04/11/politics/lepage-vetoes-solar-energy-bill-two-others/

AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage vetoed three more bills Friday evening, including a solar energy concept he has been railing against for weeks.

LePage said he vetoed LD 1252, An Act to Improve Maine’s Economy and Energy Security with Solar and Wind Energy, because it establishes a new tax — 0.011 cents per kilowatt-hour — on residential and commercial electric bills to fund a solar energy program. He said he won’t support a rate increase in a year when electricity rates in Maine already have gone up.

“This is a particularly painful time to impose an additional tax on electricity,” LePage wrote in his veto message. “Energy taxes are regressive and disproportionately hurt our low-income households. This bill would impose the tax on thousands of hardworking families just to provide the few who have the means to purchase a $20,000 solar system with a rebate of an estimated $2,000.”

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Terry Morrison, D-South Portland, passed through the Senate 21-12 and through the House 109-30. It would revive a solar rebate program under Efficiency Maine and aimed to help create more than 1,250 new solar panel and hot water projects at Maine homes and businesses. It was amended by Rep. Lance Harvell, R-Farmington, so that low-income Mainers who qualify for federal heating assistance would qualify for rebates for heat pumps.

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[oldandhappy]

1. I have no love for the gov,

and, wonder how much sunlight you actually get in the winter in Maine. Had friends in VT who took down their solar because it did not not really help them. ?? Asking. I do not know. Otherwise, wish Maine folk would vote themselves a new sensible gov.