Recent electricity rate increases are in the news, and with so much rhetoric swirling around energy costs, Mainers deserve to know the truth about what is really driving these trends.

The irrefutable fact is that oil and gas dependency and weather impacts linked to climate change are driving up our electricity costs.

The vast majority of rate increases that Maine people have experienced in their electricity bills over the last few years are directly linked to volatile gas-fired electricity bought on the regional New England market. By transitioning away from fossil fuels to more reliable home-grown solar and wind power, we make ourselves more energy independent and stabilize costs. This basic truth cannot be denied, but it is often ignored by opponents of Maine’s clean energy transition.

There has been lots of coverage of the rate increase that went into effect on July 1. According to the Public Utilities Commission, for the average CMP residential customer with a $15 per month increase, two-thirds of that cost will pay back utilities for storm recovery after being bombarded last year by extreme weather events linked to climate change.

The other third is attributed to something called stranded costs, of which net energy billing (NEB) is only one piece. The actual increase associated with NEB – including rooftop solar, some wind and hydro power, as well as community-scale solar projects – is $2.65.

This one-time event is not representative of overall NEB program impact, because many of the benefits of the program that show up in reduced rates – like substituting expensive electricity supply from the regional market or reducing our use of the regional transmission system – flow to ratepayers outside of the annual reconciliation process that resulted in the July 1 adjustment.

The benefit of solar outweighs the cost.

An independent study from the PUC released earlier this year (April 1) found that for every dollar invested in new solar through the current NEB program, the benefits returned to Maine people are nearly double, at a ratio of 1.93. For a program to help precipitate a market transformation to free our state from dependency on fossil fuels, that’s not a bad return on investment.

But as new solar has come online, the cost has gone up, and even though the cost is far less than the increase to cover this year’s storm restoration costs, it’s still an increase. That’s why this program was amended by lawmakers last year and is now only open to projects with the best bang for the buck.

Solar energy provides some of the cheapest, most reliable energy available.

Maine people want access to solar. They want cheaper electricity. They want to make their homes and businesses resilient to the increasingly damaging weather that we’re up against. And they want practical ways to take the fight against climate change into their own hands.

To encourage more solar that will work better for all Mainers, developers, consumer advocates, legislators and clean energy experts have already rolled up their sleeves to devise a successor program to NEB.

Last year, that stakeholder effort bore fruit when the Governor’s Energy Office issued a detailed policy plan that will ensure competitive prices, make it easy for both developers and community groups to participate, and channel the benefits of solar straight to low-income ratepayers by automatically reducing their bills.

And now we have a $62 million grant from the federal government to help stand this program up.

The next phase of Maine’s solar policy will focus the savings where they’re needed most, on low-income Mainers.

Maine households suffer from a high energy burden, with low-income households spending on average 19% of their income on energy. That’s way too much. Solar can be part of the solution – one recent study found that rooftop solar reduced energy costs for low-income households by $660 annually.

We could continue to have disingenuous debates and finger-pointing about energy costs. Or we could get to work lowering energy costs and addressing climate change at the same time.

If we do this right, we can create a powerful new feature in Maine’s energy policy landscape – a self-regulating solar procurement program, overseen by the PUC, that continuously responds to falling market prices and optimizes the configuration and location of these systems to provide maximum value to the grid, while reducing the energy burden of Maine’s most vulnerable households.