PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 28, 2025
Maine utility regulators are weighing whether a proposal by the Passamaquoddy Tribe to install hundreds of rooftop solar panels would violate the state’s net energy billing rules. However they rule, experts say, could affect other groups in Maine looking to lower costly electric bills, too. The tribal government last year secured a $7.4 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to put panels on more than 200 homes and administrative buildings at the tribe’s Indian Township reservation. But the project hit a roadblock when the local electric company, the Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative, argued that it was too big to qualify for a state program the tribe says could save its members hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.