Democrats on the Legislature’s energy committee have stepped up pressure on regulators, probing a notion that the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s recent decisions too closely align with the preferences of Gov. Paul LePage.
Democratic Sen. Dawn Hill’s Maine Freedom of Access Act request Friday for calendars from the PUC starts on Jan. 29, a date before the calendar of commission Chairman Mark Vannoy shows a meeting requested by the governor’s office that has prompted speculation among Democrats and others opposed to many of LePage’s energy policies that the Republican governor has been exerting improper influence over the independent commission’s deliberations.
The meeting took place just before Vannoy pressed for and successfully convinced Commissioner Carlisle McLean, LePage’s former legal adviser, to rewind negotiations with two wind power developers over the terms of long-term power purchasing agreements.
The decision sparked controversy and developer SunEdison rebuffed the rebuff, backing out of negotiations in favor of shopping wind power from its Weaver Wind project elsewhere.
If there’s a dagger somewhere in that vote, the cloak came when McLean and Baldacci PUC appointee David Littell voted together in May to approve better terms for ratepayers (not yet disclosed or signed on the dotted line) in a long-term contract with the other wind power company involved, NextEra.
In breaking with McLean and Littell on that vote, Vannoy reiterated his general skepticism about the PUC’s authority to require — on the behalf of electricity customers — long-term contracts between utilities and power generators.
In an interview in April with the Bangor Daily News regarding the Jan. 30 meeting and the governor’s influence on the PUC, Vannoy denied his views are tied to LePage’s.
“The key for the PUC is to be able to independently do our jobs and judge cases independently,” Vannoy said. “If I ever thought that I was unable to do that then I would not be in this position.”
LePage reappointed Vannoy to the commission in May 2013. His term expires in 2019, after LePage will be out of office. Some states elect utilities commissioners, or have them serve at the pleasure of the governor, which Vannoy said opens the door to more direct influence.
“There’s very little ability for the governor or anyone else to influence the decisions here,” Vannoy said.
Democrats, led by Hill and Portland Rep. Mark Dion, House chairman of the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, have become more vocal in expressing concern about LePage’s influence on the three-member regulatory commission, including the controversial decision to pick the lower of two caps on energy-efficiency spending.
It’s true that case landed an unexpected prize on Republicans’ doorstep, but a conspiracy theory in that particular case is convoluted, a point McLean has made during PUC deliberations.
The bill came out of the revisor’s office missing the “and” that made the difference, was then vetoed by LePage and was again approved by the Legislature with the missing “and.” If LePage was plotting to unveil this treasure later, he vetoed it the first time.
In the wind case, various unnamed sources have identified the Jan. 30 meeting as a smoking gun of improper influence over the PUC.
Vannoy and others with experience observing the PUC say it’s not unusual for commissioners to discuss their often complex deliberations with governors, legislators and their staff
Vannoy said it’s also not uncommon for the chairman to open his door when the governor comes knocking.
“As I do with the governor and other legislators, and as I do with the energy committee, I give everyone updates on the status of proceedings,” Vannoy said of the Jan. 30 meeting. “I gave him an update on where the term sheets were.”
Vannoy said he did not discuss the merits of the case or how he planned to reason in his decision to reopen the contracts. Vannoy said the conversation was limited to discussing the process and then shifted to discussing natural gas.
“It’s appropriate I think to update people and public officials and procedural issues and procedural standing but it’s not appropriate to get into any discussion of the parties’ positions,” Vannoy said.
Vannoy had another meeting with LePage in April. After a speech at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland in April, LePage said he and Vannoy discussed only an upcoming meeting of New England governors in Connecticut.
But Hill’s inquiry plans to probe deeper than those meetings, seeking emails from the PUC and extending back through McLean’s time at the governor’s office.
That search will put Democrats’ “crisis of confidence” in the PUC to the test and is a risk in one way if the vitriol expressed by Republicans over the nomination tabled Thursday turns to political loss in other ways. And it’s a risk in another way if they don’t land paydirt and show the cases they’ve chosen to highlight raise real issues.
Said another way, Hill’s information request covers emails and calendars starting Jan. 29. If the investigation is to prove successful, it appears the revelations of that request can’t end immediately after with the meeting Jan. 30.
With a history of gubernatorial involvement in PUC matters, it could be a challenge to distinguish LePage’s level of involvement in the commission’s doings from past governors, based on meeting calendars and email exchanges alone.
Littell has made public his long-standing concern at the commission, however, which is a somewhat wonky subject to watch: the power price forecasts commissioners use in upcoming decisions.
Those forecast scenarios remain confidential, but constitute the range of underlying assumptions available to commissioners on which to base their reasoning.
During public hearings, Littell has expressed concern that releasing those forecasts is in the public interest, to shed light on how commissioners are making their decisions and whether the scenarios used in those decisions favor one resource — natural gas — over others.
And that broader picture, in Maine and elsewhere, will continue to be one to watch closely.