Investigative work by Associated Press reporters has shown that Gov. Paul LePage’s administration worked to derail a Norwegian company’s proposal to site offshore wind turbines off the state’s coast.
In an article published last week, AP reported that the multimillion-dollar agreement proposed by Statoil ”“ on oil and gas company based in Norway ”“ was deliberatly stopped by administration officials.
Patrick Woodcock, director of the Governor’s Energy Office, wrote in an email in May that earlier in the spring, officials sought to void Norwegian company’s agreement in order to “stop the Statoil project,” according to the AP. State officials publicly said they wanted to reopen bidding on the project to allow the University of Maine to submit a bid, and LePage signed legislation to that effect in June.
In a June memo, Woodcock wrote that the administration had initially floated “a much more aggressive effort to explicitly void” the Statoil agreement by limiting the amount that home and business owners would pay for the project.
It’s unfortunate that this happened, as it makes the state look bad and not business-friendly ”“ contrary to one of the main goals of LePage’s administration.
The new sign he posted welcoming visitors and residents to the state says, “Open for Business.” Perhaps we should add, “Unless you’re Statoil.”
Putting Statoil’s $120 million project on hold ”“ and possibly in jeopardy ”“ was a bad move, and we hope if Statoil is awarded the bid it will proceed with its plans in spite of the administration’s efforts to derail the project.
Statoil is an established energy company and was the first to deploy an offshore wind turbine four years ago. It won approval in January to put four wind turbines 12 miles off Boothbay Harbor on floating structures tethered to the seabed, according to the AP.
Although LePage said he opposed the project due to the cost of subsidies, Mainers and Americans pay billions of dollars every year in subsidies for energy. According to a 2012 report by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts, between 2005-09, the U.S. government spent $96.3 billion on subsidies that were directed at increasing energy production, subsidizing energy consumption, or increasing energy efficiency. And ratepayers must shoulder the costs for improvements like Central Maine Power Company’s transmission line upgrades through their electricity rates. One major reasons UMaine wants to bid on the project is to help secure a $50 million federal energy grant, according to the AP report.
Wanting to give UMaine a leg up, though, by reopening the bid process was not the right move. If UMaine wanted to bid, it should have gotten its proposal together by the initial deadline. One entity missing the deadline is not a valid reason to reopen the bids. Municipalities typically only re-bid projects if they don’t receive any bids or specifications were not met by the submitted bids. If a request for proposals requires a substantial change and the bid process has to be reopened, it’s not a good way to operate, but that was not even the case with the PUC’s RFP.
Jack Cashman, the former chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, said when the state reopened the bidding process, “The message that was sent was that you can’t depend on the State of Maine to keep their commitments.”
We agree with Cashman, and we hope these maneuvers do not hurt the state’s reputation internationally, or nationally, for major companies that are interested in siting here.
The bid is expected to be awarded in December by the PUC, and we hope whatever the decision, it’s fair. UMaine must compete like everyone else, and already has an unfair advantage with the bid-process reopening. The bid should go to whichever entity has the best proposal for the state, and not be awarded based on organization’s location.
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Today’s editorial was written by City Editor Robyn Burnham Rousseau on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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