AUGUSTA — Legislation proposed by Gov. Paul LePage that would limit state-mandated incentives for renewable energy production is still stuck in a legislative committee.

The Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, debated LD 1570 today and decided to take it up again on Tuesday.

The committee needs time to understand some complex issues, and it also needs to give the Public Utilities Commission time to complete an analysis of the bill, said Rep. Stacey Allen Fitts, R-Pittsfield, who co-chairs the committee.

“These are some complex issues, and the legislative process is a deliberate process, not a reactionary one,” Fitts said in an interview after today’s meeting.

The bill’s goal is to lower electricity rates, a pledge LePage made during his campaign.

The bill would scale back a law requiring Maine electric utility companies, such as Central Maine Power, to purchase 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2017.

The bill would require that 4 percent of Maine’s electricity come from renewable energy sources. That’s the level that power companies must be at now, under current law.

That would save homeowners 40 cents a month, according to calculations done by The Portland Press Herald and reviewed by the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

The wind power industry estimates that the state’s current energy policy has attracted $1 billion in investment over the past four years and could bring an additional $16 billion in the next few years.

 

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