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President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut down on funding for renewable energy initiatives may hit a rural Maine project that would be the world’s largest multi-day battery system . The potential loss of federal tax credits for the Lincoln battery storage project has brought together an intriguing alliance to back it: Democratic-aligned labor unions and U.S.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the top appropriator in the chamber. Collins and the rest of Maine’s congressional delegation supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that President Joe Biden signed in 2021.
His administration announced last year a $147 million grant funded by that law to revitalize the shuttered Lincoln pulp mill by building a 8,500-megawatt-hour facility — enough to power about 57,000 homes — that will hold a battery to store excess electricity and discharge it if needed for 100 straight hours. But the Maine Labor Climate Council said the Lincoln project is also set to benefit from tax credits in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-era bill Trump has sought to dismantle while he and Republicans in Congress seek to pass his sweeping tax cut plan by later this year. The president froze IRA funding upon returning to office in January, but a federal judge has ordered the administration to reinstate already awarded funds as part of a pending court case.
Maine has been a leader nationally in energy storage as part of its push to meet its climate goals , with facilities already existing in old mill towns such as Millinocket and Rumford. Collins said in a statement last week she spoke with Trump’s energy secretary, Chris Wright, about the Lincoln project “and pointed out that it aligns with the administration’s energy policies, would help improve the reliability of the New England electric grid, and would be beneficial in using a shuttered paper mill in a rural area of the state.” “The secretary told me that he would review the grant, which is part of a group of grants known as Power Up New England , and get back to me,” added Collins, who voted for the infrastructure bill and opposed the Inflation Reduction Act.
Several New England states received the grant totaling $389 million to support energy storage and transmission in projects, with $147 million for the Lincoln facility scheduled to be completed in 2028. The additional tax credits are available to fund up to half of the project’s cost once it is in service and if developers meet certain labor, domestic materials or community siting standards, according Maine Labor Climate Council Executive Director Francis Eanes. Eanes said congressional Republicans are considering whether or not to keep those tax credits in their budget reconciliation plan.
Jason Shedlock, president of the Maine State Building and Construction Trades Council, which has a project labor agreement with the Lincoln battery storage facility developer, Massachusetts-based Form Energy, said he went to Capitol Hill to talk with Collins and her staff about the importance of the tax credits that include certain wage and apprenticeship requirements for the Lincoln project. Collins’ statement did not mention Shedlock nor touch on the tax credits highlighted by Maine unions. “The economic development impact is something that’s been a top priority for everyone, and the lurching of, ‘will they or won’t they,’ does nothing for working Mainers,” Shedlock said Monday, adding that U.
S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, has also been involved in trying to save the credits.
Union members rallied in Augusta last week to call for saving what the Maine AFL-CIO said are 145 projects in the state eligible for the federal energy tax credits that total more than $8.8 billion in investments, more than 9,100 jobs and nearly 5,000 megawatts of generation or storage. Apart from the Lincoln battery project, other affected projects are in places such as Gorham, Cherryfield, Clinton and Aroostook County.
The Maine Labor Climate Council noted a national report found removing the Investment Tax Credit and Production Tax Credit, which are included in the Inflation Reduction Act, could also increase monthly household energy bills by an average of 10 percent. All Democrats and independents voted for Biden’s tax and climate plan in 2022 while all Republicans opposed it, with former Vice President Kamala Harris casting a tie-breaking vote so it could pass the Senate. Various estimates said it would cost between $780 billion and $1.
2 trillion through 2031. Collins said at the time she opposed the IRA because it proposed “enormous new spending” at a time when inflation was around 8 percent and that the legislation, “contrary to its Orwellian name, would actually increase inflation at a time when Mainers are really struggling to buy gas and groceries.” The Congressional Budget Office actually said the legislation would have a “negligible” effect on inflation, which is now down to 2.
4 percent due to what economists said are other factors amid lingering anxiety over Trump’s tariff policies . Matt Felling, spokesperson for U.S.
Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the senator is “working with bipartisan Senate colleagues in partnering states to consolidate consensus around this project.” More articles from the BDN.
