Mainers For Energy Choice. Protecting Your Right to Choose.
What Is Energy Choice?
Maine passed LD 556 last year, protecting the way you heat your home, fuel your car and power your home appliances
Right now, there are discussions taking place that could lead to the repeal of LD 556. This would open the doors to to the prohibition of certain safe and commercially available energy sources by municipalities in our state.
It’s worth considering why such protections are necessary today and what energy choice means to you, your loved ones and communities across Maine.
What Energy Choice Means For You
Every day, you benefit from having the ability to choose the best energy source for your and your family’s needs. Consider these choices:
- You take a daily shower with water that could be heated with an oil or gas flame, an electric element, solar power or heat pump technology.
- You drive yourself to work and your kids to school and various activities in a vehicle that may run on gasoline, electricity, or some other fuel type.
- You cook your food using natural gas or propane flames — or an electric element.
- When temperatures plunge in the winter, you have many options for how you keep your home safe and warm: oil furnaces, gas boilers, electric heat pumps, etc.
These are only a few examples of systems, appliances or equipment you interact with every day using different energy sources. You have the opportunity to choose the right source for the right job based on your needs and budget.
That choice should be yours — and nobody else’s.
Why Energy Choice Needs Preservation
Unfortunately, your energy choice is not guaranteed. Many other states in our part of the country are enacting laws and regulations that limit people’s energy options to only electricity — even when the prohibited energy alternatives are safe and eco-friendly.
The drive to electrify everything has some serious consequences for families in Maine, throughout the Northeast and across the country. When energy choice is limited, it raises costs for everyone by inflating energy rates and compelling consumers to buy new expensive products they wouldn’t otherwise choose.
When energy choice goes away, so does the reliability of the equipment we count on every day and in its place is a power grid that is already straining under increasing demand.