Because Mainers rely so heavily on heating oil, extreme winter weather takes a toll on monthly budgets.
Instead of commissioning more studies on natural gas, Maine’s legislators should be championing pipeline construction.
S ince Maine is Maine, the April weather included a massive nor’easter that dumped nine inches of snow in Bangor and in Greenville.
Alongside the wind chill, Mainers woke up to temperatures in the teens and twenties in early April, which means folks were firing up their heating systems. Unfortunately for most Mainers, that will mean burning dirty, expensive heating oil; the average statewide price of it has remained around $4 a gallon since energy prices spiked two years ago. Hostility from Maine’s legislators and powerful climate lobbyists has resulted in 60 percent of Mainers continuing to rely on heating oil for warmth during winter storms, while roughly half of Americans stay warm by using cheaper, cleaner, and safer natural gas.
Because Mainers rely so heavily on heating oil, extreme winter weather takes a toll on monthly budgets. Natural gas is the cheapest way to heat homes, but Maine has been slow to adapt to it. Past pipelines transporting oil and gas have been scuttled, despite natural gas providing residents with lower utility rates and emissions reductions aligned with the state’s climate goals. Summit Natural Gas of Maine’s $90 million proposed pipeline was withdrawn in 2021 after backlash from environmentalists. Midcoast Maine is still dealing with the consequences of the pipeline’s cancellation: The Dragon Products cement plant in Thomaston cited the pipeline’s cancellation as a factor motivating its decision to shut down and lay off 65 workers, which devastated the town’s tax base.
Not to be outdone, Maine’s Office of the Public Advocate supported a bill this winter to ban construction of all new natural-gas pipelines, despite natural gas accounting for 50 percent of electrical power being produced in Maine and a share of Mainers choosing to heat their homes with natural gas. This bill would have bottled up the gas industry and restricted its services to areas it already does business with, effectively capping the number of customers to whom these companies can offer services. Maine’s four gas utilities all have laid more than 100 miles of pipeline and added 6,000 new customers since 2019, despite legislative roadblocks. It’s no wonder that, as of 2022, Maine has cut greenhouse-gas emissions since 1990 by 25 percent, and the potential ban on natural-gas expansion was defeated by an amendment that narrowly passed the energy committee last month.
Maine’s public advocate, Bill Harwood, and environmental activists are simply ignoring the climate, economic, and safety benefits of natural-gas pipelines. Pipelines emit fewer greenhouse gasses (61–77 percent less) than methods of moving gas or oil by railroad, truck, or other on-land transportation methods. Pipelines move a majority of all U.S. energy commodities annually and do so with an accident rate of only 0.001 percent — that makes pipelines the safest on-land method of moving natural gas and oil. The EPA reports that as natural-gas production has increased over the past decade, U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions have decreased because of more states choosing natural gas as a heating and electrical energy source. The low accident rate of pipelines ensures that cheap, low-emission natural gas is delivered to homes and power plants in the safest way possible. Delivering oil and gas by truck is, in fact, one of the riskiest ways to transport these hazardous materials. In Maine especially, the combination of shoddy infrastructure and harsh weather conditions means that truckers are more susceptible to crashes delivering heating oil during the winter.
Mainers will have paid more than necessary to stay warm during the nor’easter. Maine has made heat-pump installation on new homes a priority to decrease energy costs, but since heat pumps only transfer heat, they are better suited for a home that has a backup source of heat generation. Heat pumps can make homes more energy efficient, but ultimately, they need a source of heat to function effectively in cold climates. Certain heat pumps also require backup heating when the temperature drops below freezing, while relying solely on a heat pump in frigid temperatures requires larger and more expensive heat pumps. Weatherization efforts in Maine, which is home to some of nation’s oldest housing stock, are necessary but insufficient to ameliorate energy poverty.
Instead of commissioning more studies on natural gas, Maine’s legislators should be championing pipeline construction and resuscitate the projects that have been abandoned. The lack of encouragement for constructing critical infrastructure in the state is best illustrated by Maine Democrats cutting nearly $60 million in highway funding and $14 million from numerous other transportation infrastructure-related spending. Ultimately, Mainers’ wallets will bear the brunt of inadequate energy infrastructure.