EXCERPTS FROM GOVERNOR JOHN BALDACCI’S STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS


MARCH 10, 2009 -- This summer, we received an unwelcome reminder of how dependent our State is on costly, imported oil.

In a short time, prices more than doubled for gasoline, diesel and heating oil.
We were on the verge of a crisis.

Truckers, fishermen and just about everyone else felt the weight of high energy costs.

We immediately began planning for an emergency. We knew then, and we know now, that if heating oil prices are $4 dollars and 50 cents a gallon, many people would struggle just to make it through Maine’s long winter.

There are many factors that have contributed to the current recession.
Poor decisions on Wall Street and in Washington; an economy dependent on easy credit; and a lack of government oversight all played a part.

But the high cost of energy is one of the biggest factors.

I’m concerned that we might forget the role high oil prices played in our current economic troubles and underestimate how quickly prices can rise again.
We’ve been through energy crunches before.

But time and time again, as prices stabilized we returned to our old habits.

Not this time.

Not again.

No more.

For too long our economy has been held hostage by imported, foreign oil.

It’s jeopardized our national security, and has left us at the mercy of markets and foreign powers over which we have little control.

In July, we took immediate action to begin fighting our oil addiction, with a new emphasis on making homes more energy efficient.

We increased funding for weatherization, cutting the energy bill for families.
We put technology to work, streaming live video to classrooms across the State, so we could expand training for homeowners and professionals so they can get the information they need to reduce energy consumption.

We put all of our energy resources within reach of a single telephone call. One call to 2-1-1 will put you in touch with a person who can help.

We distributed more than 300,000 do-it-yourself brochures that include easy-to-do tips to reduce energy consumption.

And you raised more than $1 million dollars through the Keep Maine Warm Fund to help folks make it through the heating season. 

Thank you to those who gave.

Much has been accomplished, but we must do more. Prices will go back up, and we can’t sit and wait for it to happen.

We must transform our State.

We will become more energy efficient; 
We will invest in clean, renewable sources of power; 
We will build a better electric grid that is more reliable and capable of connecting Maine and all of the Northeast to new sources of electricity; 
We will empower workers to do the high-tech green jobs that our new economy will demand.

And we will invest in a smarter transportation system that can move goods and people more cheaply and efficiently.

Our efforts start with energy conservation and weatherization, where we’ve already made a good start. 

We will leverage funding from the President’s Recovery Act, and we’ll expand the reach of our efforts.

I will introduce the Maine Energy Independence Act, which will re-invent the way we manage our State energy programs, and put all of our efforts under one roof so they are more closely coordinated and integrated.

We will set aggressive goals to weatherize every home in Maine and half of all of our businesses in the next 20 years.

We know that we need to make energy upgrades as easy as possible. With this plan, there will be one place that individuals, families and businesses can go to get help with all of their energy efficiency needs. 

My approach will build upon the strengths of our current programs, but will also energize new partnerships to accomplish our goals.

Tonight I am announcing a new collaboration between the State and Maine banks and credit unions that will simplify the way people accomplish home energy improvements.

The program uses State loan guarantees to access up to $100 million dollars of private capital. 

It will help thaw our frozen credit market and make it possible for homeowners to invest in energy upgrades. 

In one simple process, you’ll be able to save money on your mortgage by refinancing, improve your home’s value, and cut utility bills.

And we’ll provide direct support, through our State Energy Plan, for subsidized energy audits and other incentives to help businesses make improvements.
The Recovery Act includes $32 million dollars to weatherize homes for low-income families, and we’re adding access to another $100 million for middle-class families. 

We’ll multiply our current weatherization efforts by 20 times.
I’m talking about a massive infusion of new resources to fix people’s homes and improve their lives. 

The dividends for Maine are huge. We’ll send fewer energy dollars out of State, we’ll reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and we’ll create thousands of jobs for Maine workers.

In addition to creating new jobs, we must ensure that Maine workers are prepared to fill them. 

We will combine the efforts of the Department of Labor, Maine State Housing, the Public Utilities Commission and our universities and community colleges to create a green-collar workforce that is second to none.

This summer Maine will have its own Weatherization Corps of young workers, who will learn important life and job skills right on the job.

A joint program between the Department of Labor, Jobs for Maine Graduates, local CAP agencies and Maine Housing will train about 100 students to work on energy related projects.

These young people will have the opportunity to learn about energy efficiency and home weatherization while working to make their State a better place to live. And they’ll do it while earning a paycheck.

It’s a good program that will help young workers and help us meet our energy goals.

My energy plan also invests in the growth of Maine-based renewable energy resources.

When Maine was at the peak of its economic strength, our industries were able to harness the power of our rivers and the resources in our forests to produce cheap electricity.

Those resources drove Maine’s industrial revolution. And those same renewable resources can power a new revolution for our State.

Already, we have reduced the regulatory barriers for the development of onshore wind power, and we have an Ocean Energy Task Force working right now to do the same thing for resources that exist off our coast.

The group is developing legislation that will greatly advance renewable energy projects off the coast of Maine.

And I propose $7.5 million dollars for a Maine Marine Wind Energy Fund that will support the development of the premier offshore testing site for wind energy for the country. 

This is a tremendous opportunity to become one of only three test sites in the country.

Success will make Maine a hub for the manufacturing and research industries that will drive energy production for the next generation.

We don’t have oil or natural gas reserves in Maine, but we are rich in the resources that can take their place. We have two of the largest operating wind farms in New England, and billions of dollars in proposed projects on the way.
Turbines placed off Maine’s coast have the potential to produce more than 133 gigawatts of electricity from wind alone. That’s as much electricity as 40 nuclear power plants can produce.

There’s also impressive work happening in the development of tidal power, which captures the movement of the ocean to generate electricity. Ocean Renewable Power Company is field testing tidal power turbines right now near Eastport.
And that’s just the beginning. As my Wood-to-Energy Task Force demonstrated, Maine has great energy reserves in our forests.

Whether it’s through wood pellets in homes and businesses or biomass electric generation, we have great options for diversifying our energy consumption.
SAD 58 Superintendent Quentin Clark has put this type of innovative thinking to work in his school system. Instead of relying on oil from 8,000 miles away, he is heating one school with pellets made in Franklin County, just eight miles away. He’s looking to expand the program to all the schools in his district. 
And a facility in Strong will provide the pellets.

Quentin is creating opportunities by being smart about energy.
Solar, hydroelectric and the potential for pumped storage round out our impressive energy mix. 

Maine sits at the center of a growing energy hub, not only for us but for all of New England.

To the north in Canada, there are vast sources of clean, cheap and renewable energy. To the south, millions of people hungry for renewable, clean, reliable energy supplies.

As anyone in real estate can tell you, the three most important assets you can have are location, location and location.

Our location puts us in a position to become a renewable energy engine for our country. We can help deliver on the promise of a new energy future ╨ one that reduces the impact on our climate, and stabilizes and reduces the cost of electricity for Maine.

But if we want to capitalize on our advantages, we must be aggressive.

As we transition our economy from oil and utilize more electricity for our energy needs, we must strengthen and improve our electrical grid.

That means more reliable transmission and greater capacity to handle the new energy resources that are being developed.


Consider the Maine Power Reliability Project, proposed by Central Maine Power. This upgrade of our existing grid has the potential to pump $1.5 billion dollars into our State’s economy and create more than 2,000 jobs over four years. 

That translates into more than $240 million dollars in new wages and salaries.
In addition, we need to connect Aroostook County’s electric grid to the rest of Maine and New England. We can’t continue with part of our State isolated from the rest.

And while we need to be able to move quickly to review new projects when they are proposed, that doesn’t mean relaxing our standards. Every project must be judged on its details and must be right for Maine.

But we must move forward.

We also must rethink the assets we have, and put them to the most efficient use.
Right now in Maine, we have transportation corridors that run the length of our State.

We need to transform them into much more.

Today I signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bangor Hydro to explore the potential use of the right-of-way that exists along our interstates and roads for new, underground transmission lines.

Instead of a transmission company negotiating with hundreds of individual landowners and communities, they can utilize right-of-ways that already exist. There’s less impact on the environment and less impact on people.

Transportation corridors will become commerce corridors.

The idea also has the potential to speed an exciting proposal currently under consideration.

Bangor Hydro’s Northeast Energy Link, which would run from Orrington to Boston, has the potential to inject $2 billion dollars into Maine for the construction of a new transmission line that would move eleven hundred megawatts of clean, renewable electricity.

The line would support the growth of vast wind resources and help to drive down the prices for electricity in Maine and throughout the region.

We are also investigating the potential for second energy corridor that would run between Maine and New Brunswick.

Our shared objective with New Brunswick is to increase the long-term supply of secure, reliable and clean energy to our region. The work will also include the accelerated development of renewable power and an improved grid in Maine.
These commerce corridors would house appropriate projects, generating tens of millions of dollars each year in new revenue for the State.

Those resources would be used to meet our weatherization and energy efficiency goals, to invest in top quality energy research and other State priorities, including tax relief.

And the corridors would make it quicker and easier for major projects to get started, putting people to work faster.

A third possible transmission line is being discussed at part of the plans for pump storage in Wiscasset.

Riverbank Power wants to spend about $1 billion dollar to construct an underground hydro generation facility in Wiscasset. 

The facility would then be connected to Boston by a proposed $1 billion dollar underwater transmission line.
With just a small handful of projects, Maine has the potential to benefit from more than $5 billion dollars of direct, private-sector investment.

And if we meet our stated goal of developing 3,000 megawatts of wind power, Maine will see an additional $7.5 billion dollars of energy investment.

The massive size of the proposed investments ╨ at least $12 billion dollars and growing ╨ demonstrates Maine’s central position in the growth of renewable energy, and our great potential for energy self-sufficiency and to lower energy prices for Maine people and businesses.

At stake are thousands of jobs, new economic development, and millions of dollars of potential revenues for the State that can support our priorities.
When it comes to energy, Maine and New Brunswick have a close and necessary relationship. We have to work together, and that means making compromises for our better energy future on both sides of the border.

As we move forward with new and exciting energy partnerships, it is critical that the Canadian government support our efforts to bring new, liquefied natural gas terminals to Washington County.

LNG has an important role to play as Maine transitions from oil to renewables, and the proposed terminals in Washington County give economic hope to a region that needs new industry.

All of these projects will create thousands of good-paying, private-sector jobs in Maine just when we need them the most.