MPBN | Maine 'Streamlining' Task Force Explores Cost-Cutting Potential of Natural Gas

Gov. Paul LePage’s streamlining task force has signed off on a proposal that generates just over $25 million in savings in the current state budget. The panel’s co-chairmen said that finding new areas to cut costs remains a formidable challenge. But an effort to increase the use of natural gas throughout Maine is showing real promise. State budget experts say that conversion to natural gas could slash the state’s energy expenses in half and reinvigorate business growth by providing access to a more affordable fuel.

There’s been no lack of discouraging news on Maine’s energy front. The state, some state officials believe, continues to be overly-reliant on oil as a primary heating fuel. But David Emery at the governor’s financial operations center is becoming increasingly optimistic.

“We’re beginning to see a considerable amount of movement,” Emery said. “Several companies have invested time and money in natural gas projects for Kennebec County and various other places around the state.”

Emery, a former Republican congressman from Maine, discussed his hopes for natural gas with the governor’s streamlining task force, which has already found $25 million dollars in budget savings, and is looking for more.

Government facilities in the Augusta area consume about 1.2 million gallons of heating oil a year. The Maine State Prison in Warren alone burns about 440,000 gallons. Emery says it’s not hard to compute the savings the state could achieve through conversion to natural gas.

“If you look at the comparison of energy costs, you see that fuel oil is costing us approximately $25 per million BTU and the natural gas for industrial large commercial users would cost only $9 to $11 per million BTU,” Emery said.

There’s no natural gas pipeline leading to the Maine State Prison, but Emery proposes the construction of an on-site facility to store the fuel that would be trucked to Warren from Massachusetts or Connecticut.

“Even with the trucking and the installation of that storage costs, we might be able to acheive a savings of 20 to 25 percent below the current cost of fuel oil,” Emery said.

Some lawmakers believe that natural gas conversion at state facilities may represent one of the single-largest targets for cutting the costs of state government. Republican Sen. Richard Rosen of Bucksport, who co-chairs both the streamlining panel and the Appropriations Committee, supports the state prison energy plan.

“Embracing the idea of making that conversion at the state prison, even if it comes prior to the availability of piped gas, the fact that it was built with that conversion element seems like a very sensible plan and one that will generate savings,” Rosen says.

While many Mainers still don’t have access to natural gas, state officials are saying that it should become more available in two to three years. Democratic state Sen. Dawn Hill of Cape Neddick, a member of the streamlining task force, is optimistic about future enegy savings.

“In the last few years in the Legislature, I thought there were clearly areas where we could have savings, especially with what we buy and how we buy it,” Hill says. “So I think we’re heading in the right direction — it is a bright light.”

Other changes for the state’s Corrections Department — including the potential closure of the Downeast Correctional Facility in Washington County — are expected to be taken up as part of one of two upcoming supplemental budget requests from Gov. Paul LePage.