Legislators are trying to overhaul Central Maine Power Co.'s $1.5 billion proposal to install high-capacity power lines throughout the state. One bill would force CMP to bury high-voltage lines near residential areas, schools, playgrounds, children's summer camps and child care facilities. Another would force public utilities, including CMP, to pay for independent appraisals of land they want to take by eminent domain. ...The project would affect about 4,000 abutters statewide. If approved, it is expected to take three to five years to complete.

State regulators on Thursday dismissed a $625 million power grid expansion necessary to support a massive wind farm in northern Maine, putting the so-called Maine Power Connection project on ice for the time being. The Maine Public Utilities Commission on Thursday granted a motion to dismiss the project after Aroostook Wind Energy discovered unanticipated technical hurdles.

Acres of solar-electric panels installed near communities that use lots of power in the summer could be an alternative to a controversial and costly upgrade of the transmission system in southern and central Maine, a Portland-based energy company is asserting. GridSolar LLC suggests erecting solar panels in 25-acre fields, initially around the midcoast and Lewiston-Auburn. The locations would coincide with areas that Central Maine Power Co. has identified as being most prone to future blackouts and reliability problems, GridSolar said.

To state officials and proponents of "green energy," Thursday's ceremony celebrating New England's newest wind farm was a relatively small yet symbolic step toward greater energy independence in Maine. ...But today wind-power projects nationwide are being delayed or put on the backburner due to economic turmoil.

A proposed wind-energy project designed to send massive amounts of electricity from Aroostook County through southern Maine has been put on hold, due in part to the discovery that a technical glitch in transmitting that power could black out portions of southern New England. The proposal involved hundreds of wind turbines with a total output of 800 megawatts, equivalent to the former Maine Yankee nuclear plant in Wiscasset.

About 25 people attended Tuesday night's hearings on wind power and proposed Roxbury law changes to accommodate wind energy facilities. Most of them opposed such development, planner Mark Henry said. ..."The big thing is that we want to get the issue before the people of Roxbury so they can have their vote," he said.

Selectmen voted Monday to ask the state Legislature pass legislation allowing Carrabassett Valley to annex the upper portion of Redington Township, subject to local voters' approval. The move allows the process and debate to continue so that if the Legislature passes a private and special law, a townwide vote can occur. It will be up to Carrabassett Valley registered voters to make the final decision on annexation. If they approve, then it opens the process for a community-based wind farm to be built.

Residents will head to a special town meeting Tuesday, Jan. 6, to consider approving a six-month moratorium on wind turbines. The vote comes as a third company has expressed interest in erecting wind turbines on town-owned property. ...The warrant for the Jan. 6 meeting states there will be "discussion on the status and findings regarding proposals received," although there is not a specific article calling for a vote on the proposals. There is, however, an article asking voters if they will approve a moratorium "on the issuing of permits allowing for wind turbine construction and development."

The electricity grid in Maine and much of the country can't reliably handle new generation capacity from wind power and other renewable resources, an influential industry group says. Aside from beefing up transmission lines, the group said, states must aggressively promote energy efficiency and manage electricity use to balance the on-again, off-again nature of wind and solar power. ...The report, issued last week by the North American Electric Reliability Corp., is expected to influence debate over plans to modernize Maine's transmission grid.

New England governors and Eastern Canadian premiers are expected to focus on a regional approach to energy when they begin their annual meeting Tuesday in Bar Harbor, Maine. With an energy-hungry New England market and the five eastern provinces all looking to export new sources of energy, the premiers say maintaining good cross-border relations is crucial. "We'll be able to talk about the commonalities and that's around energy efficiency, around renewable types of energy," said Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald.

A proposed $2 billion upgrade to the state's electric transmission system is contingent, the utility companies say, on Maine not only staying in, but expanding its ties, with the organization that oversees the New England power grid - a relationship the Baldacci administration last year said was costing ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars. This year the administration is being asked to change its tune, attracted by the thousands of jobs the transmission projects promise to bring and the connection that would be built to proposed wind projects - all potentially subsidized by other New England states. ...Closer to home, ratepayers in Aroostook County are worried that if Maine Public Service becomes part of the ISO, they will see their electricity costs skyrocket because they would be asked to pick up a share of transmission projects in other states. "I still feel this is a gold rush mentality and people aren't really looking at this," said Sen. Roger Sherman, R-Aroostook.

A University of Maine researcher told members of Congress on Tuesday that offshore wind power offers enormous potential for helping wean the U.S. off its fossil fuel dependence and that Maine is ready to lead the charge in developing the technology. ...These turbines would be located about 20 miles out to sea, making them invisible from land and therefore less likely to encounter opposition from coastal landowners, Dagher said. And unlike the Pickens plan, which focuses on wind power development in the Midwest, offshore wind energy could be located closer to the nation's primary population centers.

Boisvert said future projects only will result in more spending as the utility carries out needed improvements. She also said one of the most expensive projects on the horizon could be the proposed Coos County Loop. She said this project requires the transmission lines in Coos County to be upgraded so new biomass, wind and solar power generated there can be transported to Southern New Hampshire and other states as needed. Boisvert said PSNH has to carry out that project to meet the state's Renewable Portfolio Standards approved by state lawmakers. ... It has yet to be determined if the costs will be borne by PSNH ratepayers, New Hampshire state taxpayers or shouldered by customers of member utility companies that make up ISO-New England throughout the Northeast. "There's no definitive answer," Boisvert said.

Most of the Maine initiatives, he said, are at least months away from producing results, and the speed with which energy costs have risen means most companies can't afford to wait that long. "This is an issue that has percolated for a long time and neither Congress or the Senate has done anything effective," said Van Scotter, whose mill is shut down this week for mandatory maintenance. Recounting a conversation with [U.S. Rep. Michael] Michaud, Van Scotter said, "He didn't really have anything to say. I just didn't get any sense that there was anything he could do to help." And wind power, one of state government's biggest initiatives, isn't likely to produce anything close to the 10,000 gigawatts of electricity the U.S. needs to create annually to keep pace with rising demand, Van Scotter said.

Two utilities on Tuesday proposed $1.9 billion worth of electric infrastructure improvements to ensure reliability of the existing power grid as well as to connect northern Maine to the New England power grid for the first time. ...A study has indicated that the existing power grid serving CMP customers will no longer operate reliably beyond 2012 without the improvements, Burns said. Meanwhile, residents of northern Maine have not enjoyed the potential fruits of electric deregulation because Maine Public Service Co. is not connected to the rest of the New England power grid.

State regulators are soliciting public comments on new rules that will speed up the approval process for siting large wind farms throughout much of Maine. The new rules, which are based on legislation approved earlier this year by both the Legislature and Gov. John Baldacci, streamline the regulatory process by identifying areas as appropriate for wind-energy projects.

Maine Governor John Baldacci is expected to sign this week a bill that creates fast-track review of wind farms and sets a goal to develop 3,000 MW of wind energy by 2020. The legislation requires that the state limit project review in the fast-track zone to no more than 185 days, unless a public hearing is necessary, which extends the cut off to 270 days. In contrast, state regulatory review for some Maine wind projects has taken years.

Harley Lee stood before lawmakers on the Utilities and Energy Committee at the State House on Monday, once again making the case for a Redington Township wind farm permit. ..."We've put over a decade in this and over $5 million so it's been a huge effort to try to save the planet here in Maine," said Lee, president of Endless Energy Corp. of Yarmouth. The debate over developing wind power in Maine was renewed during a public hearing before the legislative committee. The hearing focused on legislation to streamline and expedite the regulation process for wind power developers. The bill is based on the recommendations of Gov. John Baldacci's wind power task force, which released its official report in mid-February. ...Several people stood in opposition of the bill, including Dain Trafton of Phillips. Trafton said the bill's emphasis on streamlining the permitting process would weaken environmental protections already in place.

As Maine weighs its future electricity needs, a debate has emerged over which sources will truly generate significant amounts of power and fulfill their promise of being environmentally friendly. ..."The intermittency of wind creates problems for the electric system. Wind is here today and gone tomorrow," Chasse said. "In order to supplement that, you need complementary types of generation like hydro. You can store water to generate energy when there's no wind." Richard Hill, retired professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maine, believes that wind power represents just a drop in the bucket of the needs of New England - and he worries about the long-term viability of natural gas."The major focus of energy concern must be on the 10,000 megawatts of New England generation capacity that is locked into natural gas," Hill said in a recent interview.

State and regional regulators acknowledge the hurdles - especially in northern New Hampshire - but don't have ready solutions. A bill before the New Hampshire Senate would have the state be ready to act if no regional solution is forthcoming. ISO New England, which manages power for the region, is considering changing rules so more of the costs of transmission upgrades could be shared regionally. But as things stand now, backers of projects generally must pay for upgrades needed to connect them to the system. "None of this is a real speedy process," acknowledges Michael Harrington, senior regional policy adviser for the state Public Utilities Commission.