Roughly 14 years in the past, I persuaded a lobsterman to take me out to his fishing grounds off Saint John, New Brunswick. I used to be there to write down concerning the improvement of a brand new liquefied pure fuel import terminal constructed by Irving Oil, New Brunswick’s largest firm, and Repsol, the Spanish multinational power firm.

The 600-foot-long New England, a tanker operated by Irving Oil, unloads its cargo on the Buckeye-Irving terminal in South Portland on Oct. 23, after crusing from Irving’s refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick. Maine will get greater than 80% of its gasoline and heating oil from Canada, and far of it comes from Irving’s Canaport crude oil terminal. Tux Turkel/Workers Author, File

Why did I wish to write about this undertaking? As a result of among the fuel being introduced from abroad was going to be injected right into a lately constructed pipeline system working by Maine. It was going to be an vital, new supply of power for us.

The lobsterman was involved about how LNG tanker visitors may have an effect on his livelihood. He already needed to dwell with the parade of supertankers that arrived subsequent door at Irving’s Canaport crude oil terminal, the biggest in Canada.

I didn’t notice it then, however that’s the place a good greater story was happening.

The crude arriving at Canaport is pumped to Irving’s refinery, 5 miles away. Some comes again within the type of gasoline, heating oil and jet gasoline, to be delivered by smaller tankers.

Right here’s what I ignored, 14 years in the past. A important share of that manufacturing is exported to Maine, in ships that dock in South Portland, Bucksport and Bangor. Right this moment, Maine will get greater than 80% of its gasoline and heating oil from Canada, and far of it comes from Canaport.

Did you fill your automotive with gasoline as we speak? Even if you happen to didn’t go to an Irving station, one among which appears to be on nearly each nook in Maine, there’s an honest probability you went to at least one that buys its fuel from an Irving terminal.

Tankers shuttle refined petroleum merchandise, equivalent to heating oil and gasoline, from Saint John to Portland Harbor yr spherical. Final fall, once I was writing about heating oil costs, I photographed the 600-foot-long oil tanker New England unloading on the Buckeye-Irving terminal. For those who occur to drive throughout the Fore River on Interstate 295, look towards the harbor and the tank farms. Perhaps you’ll spot one of many Irving ships in port.

I’m relating the Canaport story to make a degree. Mainers like to think about themselves as an unbiased bunch. On the subject of power, although, we’re not as self-reliant as we might imagine we’re, or as we’re striving to be.

SURPRISING DEPENDENCE ON IMPORTED ENERGY

Let’s follow gasoline and heating oil for a minute.

We’ve established that the fuel you’re pumping possible got here from Canada. However Irving doesn’t publicize the place the crude comes from.

We will assume some comes from tar sands in Alberta. Ten years in the past, the Canadian firm now known as TC Vitality Corp. needed to construct a pipeline working from Alberta east to Canaport. Plans have been dropped in 2017, following robust opposition. In desperation, some tar sands crude has since been shipped from British Columbia by the Panama Canal and up the East Coast to Saint John, a visit that takes a month.

Nonetheless, Canada’s federal power regulator says the vast majority of Canaport’s crude comes from non-Canadian sources. That implies a lot of the gasoline we put in our vehicles comes from crude oil that originated abroad.

Our dependence will ease as extra Mainers drive electrical vehicles. However except you could have photo voltaic panels and dwell off the grid, you’re related to New England’s electrical transmission system. Besides on sunny days, you’re charging your battery-powered automobile with a mixture of power sources at completely different instances of the day and the yr.

Maine is a part of ISO-New England, the unbiased system operator of the six-state electrical grid. Energy flows forwards and backwards, with turbines dispatched based mostly on successful bid costs in a aggressive market.

The largest year-round gasoline supply for energy technology is pure fuel, used to generate half the area’s electrical energy. Most of it comes from home pipelines into New England. However on the coldest days, some comes from the Caribbean, by Boston Harbor and Saint John. And when it’s so chilly that there’s not sufficient pure fuel for each heating and energy manufacturing, or when wholesale fuel costs are particularly excessive, our technology combine can even embrace oil. Some could come from Maine’s personal Wyman Station energy plant in Yarmouth.

You’ll be able to see this technology combine each minute of the day, by way of a pie chart on ISO-New England’s web site. I watched how this performed out in December, and it’s fairly revealing. Listed below are two examples.

• Dec. 7: Heat and wet, 50 levels in Boston. New England’s producing combine was dominated, because it sometimes is, by pure fuel, at 40%. Subsequent was nuclear energy at 24%; imports from Canada at 19%, and home hydro at 9%. Different renewables, led by wind, contributed 8%.

• Dec. 25: A frigid, partly-sunny Christmas morning, with Boston temperatures within the teenagers. Oil was the highest gasoline, at 31%, as a result of on that day it was cheaper than pure fuel. Oil was adopted by nuclear, at 22%. Pure fuel was a low 18%. Canadian imports have been subsequent, at 11%, adopted by home hydro at 10%. Different renewables have been contributing 7% to the combination. Of that, 38% got here from wind farms; 30% from waste-to-energy vegetation, 22% from biomass and seven% % from photo voltaic.

ISO-New England additionally tracks carbon dioxide emissions. On that chilly Christmas morning, a really excessive 222 metric tons of CO2 have been being emitted, of which 174 metric tons have been attributed to grease.

The stage for this case was set on Christmas Eve, when some turbines within the area have been unable to satisfy their contract obligations. To make sure sufficient capability reserves, ISO-New England known as on oil vegetation, estimating this month that they burned 31 million gallons throughout the interval.

So there we have been. Burning soiled, climate-changing oil to maintain the lights on.

AND WHAT ABOUT THOSE CANADIAN IMPORTS?

Whereas their contributions and sources differ, Canadian imports can embrace: From Quebec, hydroelectricity despatched into Vermont. From New Brunswick, oil-fired energy from Coleson Cove, a plant just like Wyman Station; coal technology from Belledune, a plant within the north, and nuclear energy from Level Lepreau, a reactor close to Saint John.

Maintain on. Greater than 70% of Maine’s in-state electrical energy technology got here from renewable sources final yr. Our legacy hydroelectric dams generated roughly 1 / 4 of that complete, adopted intently by a brand new power supply for Maine, wind energy. Biomass provided one-fifth, though that share will want adjusting as a result of some wood-fired vegetation have shut down.

Sure, large-scale photo voltaic farms are popping up in fields throughout Maine. However as of final yr, they provided solely about 3% of the entire in-state manufacturing, in line with the U.S. Vitality Info Administration, the data-collecting arm of the Division of Vitality.

So regardless of the expansion of renewables, Maine doesn’t generate sufficient energy for all its wants. We nonetheless get 30% or so from the New England grid and from Canada. And clearly we will’t depend on wind when it’s calm, or on photo voltaic at night time or on stormy days. Vitality storage will change this sometime, however large-scale, long-duration storage is a means off.

In the meantime, 40% of the state’s complete power wants are glad by petroleum, with 60% going to gasoline motor autos. Six out of 10 Maine houses nonetheless use oil or kerosene as their major heating gasoline, the best share within the nation. So in relation to weaning the state off the carbon-based fuels that contribute to local weather change, it’s difficult.

This winter is displaying us simply how difficult and unstable issues are.

• Heating oil: Statewide common costs peaked at $5.71 a gallon in mid-November. They backed off beneath $4.50 in early January, however are nonetheless excessive.

• Electrical energy provide: One of the best PUC-negotiated normal supply bid is 50% larger than final yr, going to 17.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. That pushes the entire, common CMP dwelling invoice to $154 a month.

• Gasoline: Costs have been sliding. The statewide AAA common was $3.40 in early January, down 33 cents from a month earlier.

Warmth, mild and transportation. Most Mainers are affected by no less than two of those three requirements. Consultants generally name it the entire family power burden.

HOW ARE WE RESPONDING?

Maine voters rejected 1,200 megawatts of energy from Quebec over the proposed New England Clear Vitality Join line. Some didn’t need extra clear-cut corridors by western Maine. Others doubted all the ability would come from hydro. Some folks simply don’t like Central Maine Energy. Every part’s on maintain till April, when the case is scheduled for trial.

In the meantime, building has began on a undertaking that can carry roughly the identical quantity of electrical energy 339 miles, from Quebec to New York Metropolis. The Champlain Hudson Categorical is a part of New York state’s plan to get 70% of its energy from renewables by 2030. However there’s a serious distinction: All of the transmission traces might be underwater or underground.

Nearer to dwelling, there’s a brand new proposal for an additional Maine transmission line. The Public Utilities Fee has tentatively permitted contracts for 1,000 megawatts of wind energy over a line connecting Aroostook County. Final month, Massachusetts agreed to purchase as much as 40% of the output. Now it’s as much as the PUC to find out if the deal is sweet sufficient for Maine electrical prospects.

What’s extra, Wyman Station is poised to run extra typically. The 610-megawatt, oil-fired plant got here on-line in 1978 however has been largely idle current years, It was too costly in comparison with pure fuel, however that modified after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shook up exports markets.

Thrice over the previous few months, oil barges have been unloading at Wyman. On the coldest days this winter, search for an enormous plume of smoke over Casco Bay. Air air pollution and local weather change might be a secondary concern. Wyman might be serving to to maintain the lights on.

Additionally serving to might be liquefied pure fuel, with tankers loaded in Trinidad and Tobago crusing 2,200 miles to Boston Harbor. At a time when American pure fuel is being exported all over the world at document ranges, New England has a doubtful distinction. It’s the one a part of the mainland United States that should import LNG from different international locations. That dependence is making Maine electrical payments rise this winter.

Juxtapose all this in opposition to Maine Gained’t Wait, the state’s 2-year-old Local weather Motion Plan. It goals to lower greenhouse-gas emissions within the state by 45% by 2030 and 80% by 2050, and obtain carbon neutrality by 2045.

The plan requires no less than 100,000 new warmth pumps by 2025. It goals to weatherize 7,000 houses by 2025, and 35,000 by 2030. A few of these targets will profit from the brand new federal Inflation Discount Act, which is able to funnel hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to Maine. However between the price of the measures, the accessible workforce, provide chain points and different obstacles, these upgrades will take time.

The place does all of it go away us? In a tough transition, the place native aspirations are clashing with world market realities. We wish to management our personal power future. We wish to get our power from native sources that don’t worsen local weather change. We wish to section out imported fuels that, excluding Canadian hydro, are largely petroleum based mostly.

Briefly, Mainers are witnessing, and dealing with, a historic shift in how we use power to energy our lives, the place that power comes from and what it prices. The one factor that appears sure is the uncertainty over the way it will all play out.

This piece is customized from a Camden Convention presentation that might be provided by way of Zoom on Thursday. For extra data, go to camdenconference.org.

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