AUGUSTA, Maine - It will be up to the Maine Legislature to resolve a clerical error that could result in a loss of funding for the Efficiency Maine Trust. The state Public Utilities Commission Wednesday turned down a request to reconsider its earlier decision authorizing a reduced funding stream for the trust, based on a final version of an energy bill that omitted the word "and" in describing the agency's funding cap.
The 2-1 vote by the PUC places a $38 million problem right in the laps of the Maine lawmakers. Commissioner Carlisle McLean said the language in the law that came to the PUC was clear to her, but she said she would happily receive any modifications the Legislature might care to make.
In fact, given the Legislature's ongoing involvement in the snafu, McLean initially wondered whether the commission should entertain requests to reconsider its original position. "I gave pause regarding the appropriateness of this commission taking this matter up prior to legislative action, given there is no immediate implication for EMT's budget and the commission possesses a high degree of respect and deference to the legislative process, and specifically legislative language," McLean said.
The PUC's decision to stand by its original ruling in the Efficiency Maine Trust funding controversy was triggered by a formal request by The Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Conservation Law Foundation and the Maine Public Advocate. At issue is whether the PUC funds EMT at a little over $20 million - or something closer to $60 million, as some lawmakers say they intended in the original omnibus energy bill.
Legislative leaders have insisted the missing "and" was a clerical error that could cost the agency $38 million, but Commissioner McLean says she saw nothing in the law that was passed that suggested that.
"The question is whether, where language could have multiple meanings, does the result lead to an absurdity - absurdity being ridiculous, silly, illogical or incongruous," McLean said. "I find that it simply does not."
"We're always looking for direction from the Legislature - we're creatures of the statute," said Commission Chair Mark Vannoy. Vannoy joined McLean in voting against outgoing Commissioner Dave Littell to defeat the reconsideration request.
Vannoy says his panel is waiting for a legislative response that is already in the pipeline at the State House. Majority Democrats in the Maine House successfully recruited a wave of Republican support last week in a 138-1 vote for a bill that fixed the EMT clerical error. The bill is now parked in the GOP-led Maine Senate, where enthusiasm for the fix does not appear quite as strong.
Meanwhile, Gov. Paul LePage has signaled that he doesn't see much about the bill that he likes, making a veto highly probable. All of this complicates alternatives for Dylan Voorhees, whose organization, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, now has the option of appealing the PUC's decision in the absence of a legislative solution that can overcome a likely veto.
"This decision today gives parties a 30-day window to appeal this decision to the Superior Court, and that's a process we would be prepared to do but is inferior to the Legislature getting this done," Voorhees said.
Voorhees and others would like the see the Efficiency Maine Trust receive the intended funding level envisioned by the Legislature to further the trust's efforts to finance energy-efficiency programs.