I am writing to urge my fellow readers to press their state legislators to support L.D. 1686 and prevent Mainers from being taxed, outrageously, on the solar power they generate and use at their own homes and businesses.

For decades, we have been altering our environment by burning fossil fuels. Our Maine fisheries are moving north, our winter recreation opportunities are changing and lessening and destructive storms are becoming all too common. If we want our children to inherit the Maine we know, we must do everything we can to support clean energy.

When a major storm damages the grid, we ratepayers, not Central Maine Power, ultimately pay the cost of restoring it, as allowed by law. As CMP upgrades to a new billing system, we ratepayers pay the cost again. And the Public Utilities Commission’s rule would require the installation of new electric meters, which we again would pay for. Now, CMP would like us to pay for the energy we produce, as well as theirs.

This idea should be galling to all Mainers: our fellow citizens being taxed on electricity they are producing with their own equipment on their own property and using on their own property before it ever hits the grid. Can we now be taxed on the vegetables we grow in our gardens? Fellow citizens, please tell your legislators you cannot stand for a law that says a corporation can take citizens’ money for something it had no role in producing or distributing.

Ben Walsh

Brunswick


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