You have a very interesting perspective.
The poor aren't installing solar panels. The rich are. We can't pay legitimate debts. Not subsidizing the rich and the solar modifications to save them, individually, money, allows us to just be less in debt. Maine and the US are broke.
The governor is good at math. The rail line is necessary for commerce for all. Solar panels on your house are good for just you. No one is blocking anyone from buying their own solar panels. So, no interference, no loss of freedom.
Now if I want the state to subsidize my gun purchase, where do you stand on that?
Solar panels benefit everyone regardless of whose roof they are on. Every kilowatt produced by solar or wind reduces the load on generators that burn fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal. This effect will continue to grow as more systems are installed and the grid operators (ISO New England in most of Maine) refine the forecasting techniques needed to combine scheduled (traditional sources) and unscheduled (solar and wind) production methods.
There is already evidence that solar systems are shaving a bit off of peak summer loads. With enough solar systems installed, the reduced peak loads on the gird curtail the need to build more capacity and more distribution capacity, which will create cost reductions to all end users on the grid. Solar power is better able to accomplish this than wind power, and easier to predict on a day to day, hour by hour basis.
Buying power from Hydro Quebec and importing it into Maine will never reduce grid capacity requirements. And it will always be a bargaining chip in what ever other agreements, such as trans-border labor and timber sales, Maine, Quebec and the Maritimes enter into. Solar and wind power are 100% native fuel sources with no price tag or strings attached--forever.
Wind power in Maine suffers from a lack of grid connectivity to maximize its implementation. If that grid connectivity were built, it would employ local people and represent investments in local communities. The environmental and aesthetic issues surrounding wind power should be considered in comparison to the alternative damages we will certainly incur by increased reliance on carbon-based fuels, or the economic pressures and exported Maine wealth that will come with Hydro Quebec power.
When you look at the big picture, it makes sense to subsidize solar energy, and perhaps to a lesser extent, wind energy. My system was planned and installed by Maine people with families to support, working for a Maine company. The inverter is a joint engineering project between a Mass. company and a German firm. The panels came from Canadian Solar. None of those suppliers, with the possible exception of Mass. :laughing:, are our enemies.
The State of Maine is not an end-point business like Marden's. A governor needs to look to the present and the future. If we allow Maine's energy infrastructure to deteriorate, rely on fossil fuels and foreign sources, we will not look very good to companies looking for a home. Expanding natural gas use in Maine, aside from contributing to climate change, will export local wealth out-of-state with every gas bill. The more you send away, the less you have locally for jobs, schools and roads. It's that simple.
The costs of limiting the damage of climate change already factor into many decisions. That influence is only going to become stronger in the coming decades which will mean paying steeper and steeper prices for carbon fuels. There is no economic sense, let alone sanity, in being caught on the wrong side of that trend.
