Maine Faces Tough Decisions Over Energy Future

From today's edition of the Morning Sentinel (Maine):

Natural gas is the fuel of choice in Maine these days, and it comes through two pipelines based in Canada, [State Rep. Kenneth ]Fletcher said.

If natural-gas prices go up significantly, the price of electric power will rise as well, although to a lower degree initially due to the way in which energy for electric power is purchased.

Supply might be a bigger concern.

Fletcher said that supply could be compromised for several reasons. When demand for natural gas increases -- such as in deep winter cold spells -- suppliers have every incentive to divert fuel to home-heating needs because that is more profitable than power generation.

As we've seen over the past few weeks, it's not a question of if natural gas prices will rise this Winter, but rather, just how much.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Energy, Electricity, Natural Gas, Maine, Canada

Comments

Kevin McCoy said…

Hmm. I wonder if anyone in Maine is wishing that Maine Yankee was still in service.

November 7, 2005 at 5:19 PM

Matthew66 said…

With the 20-20 vision that hindsight gives us, closing Atomic Yankee in Maine seems like a bad idea. At the time, however, combined cycle gas plants seemed a better investment than replacing the steam generator tubes that were cracked. At that time natural gas prices were low, and there was a lot of opposition in Maine to nuclear power. Now, it may be different: gas prices are high, there is a shortage of supply in Maine (despite the pipelines from Canada) and opposition to LNG terminals to import gas. I would imagine, however, that any proposal to build a new NPP in Maine would encounter significant oppostion. I expect that Maine will end up importing significant amounts of nuclear generated electricity from Ontario, and maybe New York State if a new unit is built at Nine Mile Point.

November 8, 2005 at 11:42 AM

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