I recently traveled to Hallowell to testify in support of net metering for electricity customers who use solar power.

In 2015, I installed a solar power array to generate electricity for my household. Through net metering, the excess energy my solar array generates feeds back into the system is energy that Central Maine Power and its customers do not have to buy from other, environmentally destructive sources – many of them from out of state.

Gov. LePage often talks about promoting investment, yet proposals to gut net metering for solar power would actively discourage and retard investment – investment that helps generate not just electricity, but also economic activity.

Solar power and other renewable energy sources are truly the technologies not just of the future, but of the present. Every day, I’m both using and generating solar power, and so are a growing number of residences and businesses here in Maine.

But we lag behind other states in solar power because of a lack of vision from our governor, and we are losing out not just on solar energy but also on jobs and investment. This is disgraceful.

We should all work together to bring Maine’s energy economy into the 21st century, and promoting solar energy by providing financial incentives for more households and businesses to invest in it makes sense from an economic, as well as environmental perspective.

But if Gov. LePage truly does not believe that solar power is a viable source of energy – not just for the future, but for right now – then I have a hot tip for him on a great energy investment opportunity in a major share in a whaling ship set to sail from Nantucket.

Good luck with that, Governor.

Janet Lynch

Pownal