With only about 50,000 commercial and residential natural gas customers in Maine, there is a looming question about how much it will continue to contribute to the state’s energy mix. (Photo by Bill Oxford/Getty Images)
Maine was “late to the party” on natural gas, relative to other states, said outgoing Public Advocate William Harwood.
That changed with the construction of two pipelines — the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline and the Portland Natural Gas Transmission System — that fed into the state from Canada, but Harwood said the predicted explosion of natural gas use was smaller than anticipated.
With only about 50,000 commercial and residential natural gas customers in Maine, there is a looming question about how much it will continue to contribute to the state’s energy mix. Harwood and environmental advocates would like to see its use wind down in the coming years, but others say the resource is the stopgap needed for Maine to reach its clean energy goals.
In January 2024, the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) said it would investigate just how much of a role natural gas will play in Maine’s future. Harwood and others are asking when that study will begin, given the start of a new legislative session and, with that, the opportunity to impose restrictions on the public utility.
“It’s a small, but important piece of the problem that we have to get a handle on,” Harwood said.
To say that natural gas is in the same league as heating oil or gasoline in terms of greenhouse gas emissions in Maine would not be fair, Harwood said, but addressing climate change will require an all-of-the-above approach to curbing the use of all fossil fuels.
“It’s going to be hard as hell to get there and we can’t leave natural gas out of that discussion,” he added.
PUC to study future of natural gas this year
In December 2023, Rep. Stanley Zeigler (D-Montville) introduced a bill that sought to limit natural gas expansion in Maine. His proposal drew pushback from gas utilities. Ultimately, lawmakers stripped back the bill to a study of the role of natural gas in Maine’s efforts to reach its climate goals, which include achieving 100% clean energy by 2040.
Other states have conducted similar studies, including Massachusetts. However, that bill was never signed into law and in June died on the “study table” — where lawmakers place successful bills if they involve legislative studies.
Even though the legislative study failed, the PUC told Maine Morning Star that it still plans to open an inquiry to evaluate the future of natural gas in the state later this year, as resources permit, noting that there is no required timeline by which the agency is required to conduct its study.
Jack Shapiro, climate and clean energy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council of Maine, said the timing is right for the commission to open the inquiry.
Harwood, who is retiring at the end of January, said he would support another bill to limit expansion, like the one introduced last session, but he fears it would further delay the commission from completing its study.
“We’re sort of crying in the wilderness saying, ‘Somebody help us study this problem,’” Harwood said.
Two schools of thought on natural gas
While the state waits for that analysis to help guide utilities into the future, Harwood explained there are generally two schools of thought on how natural gas factors into a more climate-friendly energy mix.
Since it is cleaner than coal or oil, some view it as a bridge to more reliance on renewable energy sources as dirtier fossil fuels come offline. Others want to scale back its use, given that it still presents environmental risks. They argue that because there are already alternatives (such as high-efficiency heat pumps to heat homes), utility companies shouldn’t be laying new lines or building more infrastructure that ratepayers may end up being responsible for as natural gas is phased out.
“It’s not quite viewed with the same disdain as oil but nor is it embraced the way wind and solar [are],” Harwood said. “It kinda lives in a no man’s land in between.
Relative to coal and oil, burning natural gas results in fewer air pollutants and carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, it still emits greenhouse gases, particularly methane. There are also public health concerns with its use inside homes and potential for leakage.
Though solar and wind are cleaner than natural gas, Gary McAllister, a Portland-based civil engineer, said the problem is that they are intermittent — so their generation relies on factors that come and go. Maine has cut back on energy sources that are more polluting but also more reliable, such as coal and oil, so the state needs a stopgap while the renewable portfolio grows, he said.
Harwood also said that there aren’t enough renewables online yet to get the state through peak usage, such as winter evenings, after the sun has already set and people are trying to keep their homes warm. While he wants the state to reduce its dependence on natural gas for generating electricity, he knows it will take more wind and solar to do that.
“We need something big and bold like offshore wind,” Harwood said.
But it’s not just about more panels and turbines; there also needs to be better storage to combat the intermittent nature of renewables McAllister described. In August, Maine was awarded $147 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop what was described as the world’s largest long-duration energy storage system at the former Lincoln Pulp and Paper Mill — but that project has yet to get off the ground.
“Until such a time that grid and/or storage technologies are capable of storing and dispatching several days of demand, Maine will continue to rely heavily on natural gas to maintain a reliable and cost-effective base load,” read the 2024 infrastructure report card from the Maine Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
While McAllister, who worked on the infrastructure report card, said natural gas can provide that interim reliability, Harwood said using batteries alongside renewables can help Maine “mostly” reduce its reliance on natural gas to produce electricity.
Aside from emissions targets, the Maine Climate Council wrote in the state’s updated action plan that transitioning away from natural gas can also reduce swings in electricity bills caused by global events, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Where it will be hardest to cut back is with industrial use including at paper mills, farms and other factories, Harwood said.
One thing Harwood and McAllister agree on is the value that offshore wind could bring to Maine’s cleaner energy future.
Pointing to the pending development of a new port that would serve as the hub for a new offshore wind industry, as well as the recent federal sale of four lease areas in the Gulf of Maine, McAllister said that once developers can install those turbines, connect them to the grid and expand energy storage technology, Maine could generate enough domestic electricity to shorten the duration it would need to rely on natural gas.
However, it remains unclear whether a lack of support from the incoming Trump administration could stymie those plans.
“This is one of Maine’s greatest assets right now,” McAllister said, adding that wind on the Gulf of Maine has the potential to power all of Maine and most of New England.
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