Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 11 M A R C H 2 1 , 2 0 1 6 at both ends of the new line, runs for about 15,000 feet from Northport on the mainland to the western shore of the island. The Chewonki Foundation, an en- vironmental education organization in Wiscasset, said it will open the Elementary School at Chewonki, for grades 3-6, in September 2016. The Holmes Agency and Brown & Milliken Agency, insurance fi rms in Ellsworth, announced the two fi rms merged and will operate as Brown, Holmes & Milliken Agency. Elevation Burger to add fourth Maine spot Elevation Burger will open at 461 Stillwater Ave. in Bangor by mid- April. It will be the second Elevation Burger in the country to have a drive-thru, franchise co-owner Mark Caron told the Bangor Daily News. Elsewhere in Maine, Elevation has locations in Augusta, Portland and South Portland, also co-owned by Caron. Elevation was founded in 2002 by Hans Hess, who opened the fi rst location in Falls Church, Va. It now has 31 locations in the United States, 23 in the Middle East and one in Mexico. OTT expands 10GB broadband service New Gloucester-based OTT Communications, a division of Otelco Inc., said it will the fi rst company to bring 10 gigabits per second broad- band Internet service to the full northern ring of Maine Fiber Co.'s ree-Ring Binder network. OTT has already signed two well-known Maine companies for the high-speed service off ering — Woodland Pulp LLC and Jasper Wyman & Son, in addition to the new enterprise St. Croix Tissue Inc. Two airports land $296K in federal DOT grants U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King announced that the Caribou Municipal Airport and the Dexter Regional Airport received a $296,260 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation. e $217,935 awarded to the Caribou Municipal Airport will be used to support the construction of a 200- foot taxi lane to provide access to T he question of whether utilities such as Emera Maine should be allowed to lease electric heat pumps to their customers is proving to be as challenging for lawmakers as it was for the Maine Public Utilities Commission. First, some background. Last fall, the PUC rejected Emera Maine's proposal to install and lease heat pumps as a way of helping its low-income customers save on their heating bills. Although PUC commissioners found merit in Emera's overall goal, they ruled that under Maine's existing laws governing utilities any such leasing program should be handled by an affi liate rather than the utility itself. LD 1558, "An act to make effi cient electric heat pumps available to utility customers, including low-income customers," sponsored by Rep. Martin Grohman, D-Biddeford, attempts to remove that legal obstacle and any others that might prevent utilities from doing so. As noted by Verrill Dana lawyer Jim Cohen, speaking on behalf of Emera Maine at a Feb. 9 public hearing held by the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, Grohman's bill would clarify language in the 2013 Omnibus Energy Act limiting utilities to off ering heat pumps only through a "pilot" program. Cohen said that since Emera Maine's pilot proved their eff ectiveness, that constraint is no longer necessary. e bill also would allow utilities to make heat pumps available to customers for a monthly equipment charge as a "non-core" service. Finally, he said, it adds "impor- tant consumer and market competition protections." " is bill is about expanding the number of Maine customers who can benefi t from heat pumps," he said in his testimony. "It is about Maine taking important additional steps toward energy indepen- dence, clean energy and energy price stability." But, just as the PUC found when it solicited stakeholder views on Emera Maine's heat pump leas- ing proposal last year, not everyone sees it that way. "We strongly oppose the idea that the utility could be allowed to off er appliances, fi nancing for appliances, or advertising of appliances through its core business," testifi ed Jamie Py, president of the Maine Energy Marketers Association, a trade association composed of 300 member companies delivering heating oil, biofuels, motor fuels, propane and kerosene and off ering service and installations on the equipment that operates on those fuels. " e bill seeks to allow a utility to enter the competitive market, thus opening a crack in the longstanding public policy and fi nancial bargain that gives utilities a monopoly franchise, with guaranteed profi ts, in exchange for government oversight to prevent the utility from using its monopoly power in open and competitive mar- kets," Py told the committee. Of the 13 other stakeholders who testifi ed, eight supported the measure, two were opposed and three were neutral. Not surprisingly, the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee wasn't able to achieve a consensus at its Feb. 24 work session, with Reps. Beth O'Connor, R-Berwick, and Nathan Wadsworth, R-Hiram, voting that the bill "ought not to pass." at means the bill, when it gets sent to the House and Senate for a vote, will be submit- ted with a "divided report." At press time, the committee continued to work on the bill's language. When the bill is sent to the House and Senate for fi nal votes it will carry a majority report with the recommendation that it should be passed as amended, and a minority report recommending that it ought not to pass. P O L I T I C S & C O. B Y J A M E S M C C A R T H Y Should utilities be allowed to lease electric heat pumps to customers? Find out why businesses are choosing Managed Services from BEK Inc. over the old, flawed method of "hoping" something doesn't break, and then overpaying to fix it. 207.729.7600 | www.bekinc.net Your Custom IT Resource Hope is not a strategy Fewer technology problems Fewer technology problems No nickel-and-diming No nickel-and-diming A business that understands yours N O R T H E R N & E A S T E R N

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