This year, many Mainers felt a jolt when they opened their energy bills. According to data gathered from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Maine experienced the largest year-over-year residential electricity price increase in the country: a staggering 36.3% jump between May 2024 and May 2025. That’s more than five times the national average increase of 6.5%.
National headlines have pointed to the boom in energy-intensive data centers as a driver of electricity demand, but that’s only part of the story. States like Virginia and Ohio, home to dozens of large-scale AI and cloud computing facilities, may feel those pressures. But Maine? We have only a small handful of data centers. The sharp rise in costs here can’t be explained by AI.
The truth is, Maine’s price spike reflects something more fundamental: policy choices.
Earlier this year, a coalition of New England think tanks, including Maine Policy, published a report on the costs of state-level decarbonization plans. It warned that without dispatchable energy sources like natural gas or nuclear to balance renewables, electricity bills across the region could double by 2050.
Instead, if electricity rates continue to increase at the rate they are, the report’s predicted energy bill doubling would occur by the end of 2027, rather than 2050. The report projected that fully implementing the climate goals of New England states would require $815 billion in new spending and a massive buildout of wind, solar, and storage.
This wasn’t mere speculation. The same issues flagged in that report are already materializing in Maine. Consider the state’s now-amended Net Energy Billing (NEB) program. Designed to promote rooftop and community solar, NEB pays solar producers at retail rates far above the market value of electricity. As a result, the cost of solar subsidies is being shifted onto all other ratepayers. Maine’s Office of the Public Advocate estimates that NEB will add over $234 million to ratepayer bills this year alone.
Combine that with the increasing reliance on non-dispatchable renewables, which require costly backup capacity and transmission buildout, and the result is predictable: higher costs for everyone.
Maine’s energy future doesn’t have to be this painful. To avoid the pitfalls of an overbuilt, under-reliable system, policymakers must rethink the state’s energy mix with three key priorities in mind:
- Invest in Dispatchable Power: Renewables like wind and solar can’t carry the grid alone. Maine needs stable, on-demand energy generation that can step in when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. That means natural gas, hydropower, and eventually nuclear reactors.
- Promote Energy Self-Reliance: ISO New England reports that about 9% of New England’s electricity is imported, mainly from Canada. Meanwhile, according to the Maine Governor’s Energy Office, energy imports represent 55% of Maine’s energy consumption. That makes the region vulnerable to price swings and transmission constraints. We should be producing far more of our own power in-state, especially as demand grows.
- Expand Nuclear Capacity: New Hampshire already benefits from the 1,200 MW Seabrook nuclear station, a source of zero-emissions baseload power. Maine should not rule out a return to nuclear energy. Next-generation technologies are safer, smaller, and more flexible than their predecessors.
Maine ratepayers deserve affordable, reliable electricity. The recent spike in energy costs should serve as a wake-up call: our current path is unsustainable. A more innovative, more balanced energy strategy is not just possible—it’s necessary, and immediately.
