AUBURN – Large and small businesses are lining up behind a proposal that could free Maine from its regional power grid and potentially lower electric rates.

Two bills, LD 2254 and 2255, are before the Legislature’s Utilities and Energy Committee. Last Tuesday, Diane Moreau, co-owner of Lost Valley Ski Area and president of Ski Maine Association, testified in support of the bills. She is concerned that if they are not enacted, electricity rates will continue to climb.

“I’m here to tell you that despite Mother Nature’s cooperation, our business viability is seriously affected by the high cost of electricity in New England,” she said. “Energy prices are a very significant cost factor at our resort, and the high price of electricity drives up ticket prices, which in turn, reduces the number of families who can afford the sport, or the number of times families can afford to ski in a season.”

Between October 2006 and 2007, the Auburn ski resort’s electric bill totaled $73,502. She expects the rates will be much higher next season.

So she’s backing the two bills, championed by Energy Matters To Maine, a coalition of businesses concerned about electric rates. Among its backers are ski resorts, paper mills and manufacturers.

Pushing the group are plans by regional power grid operator ISO-New England to invest $13 billion in new out-of-state transmission facilities, a cost portion of which will be borne by Maine ratepayers. Proponents said Mainers will help foot the bill for excessive transmission projects from which they will derive no benefit.

“Policy decisions by grid operator ISO-New England have added hundreds of millions of dollars to Maine ratepayer costs,” said David Bragdon, executive director of Energy Matters to Maine. “We’re at the moment in time to do something about that.”

Bragdon’s assessment is backed up by a Public Utilities Commission report that shows Mainers will pay $300 million more for electricity over a period of four years while the new transmission corridors are being built. The PUC projects that residential and small business owners will likely see a net 6 to 7 percent increase in bills through 2010, while large industrial users can expect increases of 10 percent.

“Both our mill managers say that electric costs are the one thing that keeps them up at night,” said Bill Cohen, spokesman for Verso paper company. “Energy is our No. 1 issue to remaining competitive.”

The first measure, LD 2254, would allow the PUC to study whether withdrawing from ISO-New England would be to Maine’s benefit, and if it is, to explore a mechanism to fill the power grid’s void.

It’s based on a PUC report that shows three alternatives to the status quo: 1. make ISO-New England reform itself to relieve the disproportionate burden on Maine ratepayers; 2. withdraw from ISO-New England and have Maine become an energy island – generating and transmitting its own electricity; and 3. withdraw from ISO-New England and form a partnership with energy-rich New Brunswick.

The second bill, LD 2255, grants the PUC the power to designate corridors for siting energy infrastructure, including electric transmission and distribution facilities and natural gas pipelines. It also establishes a Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security.

Kurt Adams, chairman of the PUC, said the state agency has taken no position on the first bill but supports portions of the second bill that grant the state greater decision-making authority. In his view, it gives Maine another tool to challenge federal authority granted by Congress in 2005 to overrule states in deciding where power transmission corridors will go. Virginia is testing that authority now, objecting to a federal plan to have power lines skirt Manassas battlefield.

“LD 2255 means that decisions will be made in Maine and not in Washington,” Adams said.

But John Carroll, spokesman for Central Maine Power Co., thinks there’s little chance the federal government would trump decisions made in Maine regarding power corridors. The authority to site those lines now sits with the power companies that own the land.

“We have very serious concerns about the eminent domain authority,” said Carroll, noting CMP invests years of planning in designing and updating its delivery system. “Our transmission corridors are an incredible legacy from previous generations of CMP people. The idea of handing that off to someone else … is very disconcerting.”

The company has not taken a position on LD 2254.

Both bills are scheduled for work sessions Tuesday. Backers hope they pass, given the small window of opportunity to change Maine’s status with ISO-New England. The power grid would have to be notified this December of Maine’s intent to withdraw.

Moreau is watching closely.

“High electricity prices threaten the viability of our industry and our industry is a cornerstone of the much larger winter tourism industry,” she said. “The time has come for the Maine Legislature to reassert control over our energy future.”