AUGUSTA (AP) – While a special legislative panel is weighing options for weaning Maine off foreign oil, members are also looking to safeguard the prerogatives of lawmakers in deciding how new federal aid is spent.

On Wednesday, the Committee on Maine’s Energy Future reviewed language aimed at giving legislators a chance to target stimulus package money before state agencies decide for themselves how to spend it.

The committee of five senators and 12 representatives, which is working on a long-term, comprehensive energy plan for the state, also received a briefing on the latest state energy plan from Gov. John Baldacci’s top aide for energy issues, John Kerry.

The updated energy plan re-emphasizes previous assertions that Maine’s reliance on imported fossil fuels leads to the export of “billions of dollars” out of state each year.

The 2008-09 energy plan, which Kerry summarized for committee members Wednesday, says that estimated total state tax revenue in 2008 – $3.04 billion dollars – was less than half the amount sent out of state annually to pay for petroleum products.

The plan’s recommendations include strengthening energy efficiency, conservation and weatherization; fostering renewable energy; and upgrading transmission systems and infrastructures.

Regionally, the report notes, Maine is continuing to examine the operations of ISO-New England, which runs the wholesale electricity market in New England.

“Since the deregulation of the wholesale and retail electricity markets throughout New England in the late 1990s, the energy consumers, producers, transmitters and distributors of electricity have been struggling to evaluate the benefits and burdens of the electricity system’s market transformations,” the report says.

The results of deregulation have been “controversial and, in many observers’ opinions, mixed at best,” the report says.

New England governors are expected to discuss regional energy matters at a meeting in Washington on Feb. 22.

AP-ES-02-11-09 1639EST

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