A visit to Texas Instruments in South Portland by a Democratic member of the House of Representatives and a Republican senator Tuesday was designed as a listening and learning exercise. Rep. Martin Grohman, who representd downtown Biddeford, is a member of the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee; Sen. David Woodsome, who represents a number of York County towns and the City of Sanford, is the committee’s Senate chairman.

Grohman, in a telephone interview following the tour, said while energy prices are currently low, and trending down, that won’t always be the case and now’s the time to look at making good public policy.

“Those prices will go up, and when it’s 2019, we don’t want to say I wish we’d done something in 2016,” he said.

Grohman tends to favor wind and solar power – renewable energy. And, he pointed out, in some cases it is already cheaper than natural gas.

Gov. Paul LePage has said Maine is paying the price for high utility costs. In an August radio address he spoke of a Saco company that plans to move out of Maine to Wisconsin, where he said, energy costs are much lower. LePage said his administration, along with other states, is making progress in its plan to expand hydropower and natural gas. He said instead of looking exclusively to renewable sources like wind and solar power, Maine should look to low-cost existing energy sources, such as clean and affordable hydropower available in Quebec and natural gas in Pennsylvania.

Grohman supports L.D. 1263, a resolve that survived a veto by Gov. LePage and that directs the Public Utilties Commission to find an alternative to the present method of net energy billing. The PUC’s report is due Jan. 30.

Tuesday’s tour came ahead of a “business listening day” that Grohman said has not yet been scheduled, where committee members are poised to hear about current energy challenges businesses are experiencing.

In a joint news release, Grohman and Woodsome said that Texas Instruments is especially relevant to the issue because the company competes nationally and internationally in the technology sector.

Woodsome said the tour was designed to give him and Grohman an understanding of the business and what it needs to be successful and competitive.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].