Troy Jackson Campaigns on Affordability as Maine Ratepayers Shoulder $234 Million Solar Program - The Maine Wire

themainewire.com · Jon Fetherston · September 7, 2026

# Troy Jackson Campaigns on Affordability as Maine Ratepayers Shoulder $234 Million Solar Program - The Maine Wire

Author: Jon Fetherston Published: 2026-09-07T15:21:30+00:00 Source: themainewire.com (themainewire.com) Language: en

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Monday, September 7

Troy Jackson Campaigns on Affordability as Maine Ratepayers Shoulder $234 Million Solar Program

Troy Jackson is campaigning for the U.S. Senate on a promise to make life more affordable for working Mainers.

But one of the energy programs expanded while Jackson served as president of the Maine Senate was projected to cost Maine electricity customers more than $234 million in 2025 alone, according to the state’s own Office of the Public Advocate.

That record is now becoming a campaign issue.

Maine Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, joined by Republican Reps. Steven Foster and Mathew McIntyre, held a press conference Friday in Brewer criticizing Jackson’s record on energy policy and questioning how the Democratic Senate candidate can campaign on affordability after years spent near the top of Maine’s political power structure.

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The focus was Maine’s expanded Net Energy Billing program, or NEB, which helped trigger a massive buildout of community solar projects following changes enacted in 2019.

The program compensates qualifying solar projects through credits whose costs are ultimately recovered from electricity customers.

While the policy succeeded in rapidly increasing solar development, its cost grew far beyond early expectations.

Maine Public Advocate Heather Sanborn said the state initially sought roughly 750 megawatts of solar development but ultimately saw more than 1,600 megawatts built.

By 2025, the Public Advocate estimated Maine consumers were paying more than $234 million annually in additional costs associated with the expanded program. Another Public Advocate analysis put the figure at approximately $235 million per year.

That means the criticism now facing Jackson is not simply coming from Republicans.

Maine’s independent consumer advocate spent years warning that the program had become too expensive.

Stewart argued Friday that Republicans repeatedly tried to rein in the program during Jackson’s time as Senate president.

“20 times during Troy’s tenure we tried to roll back, 20 times the bill was killed under Troy’s gavel,” Stewart said, according to WABI. “If he is the chief architect of affordability, you can expect everybody’s going to be paying a lot more.”

That claim puts Jackson’s legislative record directly against the central message of his Senate campaign.

Jackson has repeatedly portrayed himself as a champion of working-class Mainers struggling with electric bills, housing costs, groceries and other everyday expenses.

Republicans are now asking voters to examine what happened to those costs while Jackson helped lead the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

Jackson’s campaign disputes that characterization.

In response to Friday’s press conference, the campaign argued that Republican efforts to eliminate the Net Energy Billing program would not necessarily have lowered electric bills and said Jackson helped advance reforms intended to lower costs.

The campaign also attempted to shift the focus to Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

“Susan Collins has spent decades selling out Mainers by supporting policies that raise their energy costs and dismantling programs aimed at lowering prices,” Jackson’s campaign said in a statement reported by WABI, while also accusing Collins of enabling Trump administration policies it claims increased costs.

But Collins has recently pointed to federal energy assistance aimed directly at Maine households.

In August, Collins announced that the federal government had released more than $5 million for Maine weatherization and energy programs after she and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island led a bipartisan push urging the administration to release delayed funding.

The money included more than $4 million for the Weatherization Assistance Program, along with additional funding for weatherization readiness and state energy programs designed to reduce household energy costs.

The larger question surrounding Jackson, however, remains what happened in Augusta.

By 2025, even state officials who supported renewable energy concluded Maine’s community solar structure needed major reform.

The Legislature ultimately passed LD 1777, a bipartisan measure sponsored by Democratic Rep. Sophie Warren and Republican Rep. Steven Foster.

Gov. Janet Mills signed the bill into law in June 2025.

The Public Advocate estimated the reforms would save Maine electricity customers more than $1.2 billion over 16 years, including roughly $61 million in the first year.

The law reduced payments to large community solar projects by approximately 20 percent and severed the connection between solar compensation and future increases in utility rates, a mechanism the Public Advocate identified as a major driver of rising costs.

The debate is not simply about whether Maine should have solar power.

It is about who received the financial benefit and who was required to pay for it.

Community solar developers and project owners received compensation established through the state’s program, while a significant portion of those costs was passed along through Maine electricity rates.

By the time lawmakers enacted reforms, the Public Advocate was describing the program’s cost as unsustainable and warning that rising electricity bills could undermine public support for renewable energy altogether.

For Jackson, that history presents a political problem.

He is asking Maine voters to send him to Washington on an affordability platform after serving for years as one of the most powerful elected officials in Augusta.

Republicans intend to make sure voters examine what happened to energy costs during that tenure.

Jackson can argue that he supported later reforms and that Republicans oversimplify a complicated energy market.

But the $234 million figure does not come from a Republican campaign.

It comes from Maine’s Office of the Public Advocate.

And as electricity costs remain a concern for households across the state, Jackson’s opponents are asking that voters look beyond his campaign rhetoric and examine the record he built while holding the gavel.

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September 2026