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Maine's Gubernatorial Candidates: Michaud on Energy

The other day , I was asked, whom do I support for Governor  and I said "someone who has yet to emerge."

I am commencing an investigation into Maine's gubernatorial candidates, which started unofficially with my last post on LePage's "Open For Business: campaign; Here is a summary of the Open For Business  legislation, which I will be examining further in another post. There is much in the bill that was not mentioned in the Kennebec Journal article that I used as a source in my previous post.

I expect this to be a sporadically organized project - as  I work spontaneously - in the moment, on the go, in between other things that need to be done.

The gubernatorial hopefuls are listed here.The ones we usually hear about are Lepage, Michaud, and Cutler but there are three relative unknowns on the list others on the list:

Adam Eldridge (Independent) - Project EngineerLee Schultheis (Independent) - Retired Financial Executive David Slagger (Independent) - Ex-Maliseet Tribal Representative to the Legislature & '12 State Rep. Candidate

Starting off with Michaud on energy:


Here is the link to Michuad's campaign website:

MICHAUD FOR GOVERNOR NEWS AND UPDATES


Michaud on Energy

Michaud wants to continue the mandatory taxpayer investment in wind power and solar power. There is a currently a empowered business consortium composed of state and private enterprises which has stripped municipalities in any say over the 100 windmills the business consortium  plans to install in the Gulf of Maine.

On the surface, Michaud's idea of having energy efficient requirements on new homes doesn't sound like a bad idea but one has to examine the details. Will certain types of energy efficiency be given preference? The United States is hovering on the edge of becoming one of the world largest oil and natural gas providers which will drive down the cost of oil and provide a longer time frame in which to develop alternate energy technologies.

The rush to wind and solar is fueled by the business interests of quasis- a prevalent hegemony of power which is spun by the media as "public-private partnerships", but which becomes its own form of government, un-elected by the people and enabled to use government to write legislation to suit itself. The quasis-  have installed their own taxpayer funded lobbyists, going by such names as "legislative liaison for the DECD", as but one example. The DECD - Department of Economic and Community Development -serves special interests- other wise known as the legislature's "targeted sector"  and excludes the entire retail sector, which means it excludes Main Street from their narrowly defined concept of "community".

Conclusion: Although Michaud's idea of energy efficient standards for new homes sounds reasonable on the surface, if one factors in the special interests served by the  legislature's "targeted sector economics" and the un-fair play and power grabs currently functioning through public-private business consortiums, the possibility that such a program will be used to give special interests an unfair advantage over general interests is very probable. Before such a program is viable, the corruption risk report card of Maine has to get a whole lot better,

The state should not be forcing wind and solar use on the public at a time when new technology in harvesting oil is making the United States extraordinarily rich in oil and natural gas resources. The windmill and solar industries are being driven by federal and state subsidies which have resulted in many infamous bankrupt alternative energy investments and windmill grave yards.

And interesting to note the language with which Michaud spins his program"
“Technology is advancing at lightning speed, and we need to take advantage of that,” he said Tuesday in Yarmouth during an Earth Day celebration. 
Under Michaud’s plan, new homes would need report cards on how efficiently they use energy before they could be sold. That small step would empower homeowners to invest in new technology, Michaud said.
Exactly how does mandating energy efficiency report cards  "empower" the homeowner to "invest" in new technology? I think having cash in the hand empowers one to invest. This is Michaud's way of saying that creating energy efficiency regulations will "nudge" the public into "investing" in new energy technologies- which is more likely than not, when Michaud is speaking, wind and solar. There is another new technology happening in the harvesting of oil but the proponents of wind and solar would have us believe that we need to invest in those industries because the price of oil in on the rise. That may be temporarily true  but if the United States has a new administration, it is highly possible that regulations imposed by the current administration on the development of our oil resources will be dismissed, resulting in lower oil costs and an economic boom-as well as increased national security ( keeping Putin in check). The proponents of Maine wind and solar continue to act as though they live in a bubble world in which there has been no new technology impacting the oil and natural gas industries in the USA. If the power consortium of business interests does bring up the new technologies in oil production, it is usually to bring up the arguable claim that oil is more harmful to the environment than alternative resources. Maine State Inc is in bed with wind and oil business interests. That's the advantage of being a "quasi". One can force the public to buy one's product- not that different from the ACA.
Michaud blasted LePage’s opposition to renewable energy, including the governor’s recent veto of a bill that would have restored a rebate program that encouraged the purchase of solar panels. The Legislature upheld that veto last week.
The title on the page for the Michaud campaign's energy policy supports my view:

Michaud calls for Maine to cut heating oil use


When a state allows the legislature to grab central management of its economy, we can expect everything to be governed by the interests of warring business consortium and quasi collaborations of hegemonic power. The consortium that has the more powerful government faction will win.


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