In the name of fairness, Gov. Paul LePage on Tuesday criticized local entities such as Bowdoin College for generating their own electricity, and for wanting to avoid paying electric transmission and distribution system costs.

“Special interest groups try to make energy policy complicated,” he said during his weekly radio address. “We must create fair policies that work for energy producers as well as consumers.”

LePage argued that for decades, “Augusta has been giving carve-outs for whatever fancy new form of energy pops up. The lobbyists say we can save the world and grow jobs if we just pass more mandates and hide more fees on your electric bill, all while encouraging above-market rates.”

But, he said, electric prices are too high to be competitive, so businesses are going elsewhere, or closing down.

“Big employers like Texas Instruments and Bath Iron Works tell us that Maine needs to lower its electricity costs,” LePage said.

Now in Augusta, “special interests” are trying to increase Mainers’ electric bills again, he argued.

“That’s because a number of individuals are producing their own power. Hancock Lumber is producing electricity with a biomass combined heat and power unit. Bowdoin College has installed a large solar project,” the governor said. “Electricity producers should be paid market prices for the power they generate. But they want to avoid paying the fixed costs of the electric transmission and distribution system and have the rest of us pick up higher costs on our bill.”

This is wrong, he said, and would increase costs for low-income families and struggling businesses.

“This isn’t about solar or biomass or any other form of energy,” he said. “This is about creating basic fairness for all users of our electric grid. It’s about keeping energy costs down.”

Bowdoin has in recent years amped up its green energy initiatives, deriving 1.2 megawatts from solar power to provide 8 percent of its electricity. The college boasts more than 4,400 solar panels at its athletic complex, along with a 654-kW solar farm at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.

LePage encouraged listeners to tell the Public Utilities Commission to fairly compensate electric producers, “but not at the expense of our low-income households and our struggling businesses.”

LePage’s comments come at a time when the PUC is considering whether to gradually scrap incentives that encourage the installation of solar panels on homes and small businesses.

Some environmental groups, however, appear at odds with the governor over solar power.

On its website, the Sierra Club is asking Mainers to “send a letter to Gov. LePage urging him to craft a policy that would make it easier and more affordable for Maine residents, businesses, and communities to use clean solar power.”

The Natural Resources Council of Maine on Tuesday said that 61 percent of Maine voters the group surveyed want solar energy to be a higher priority for the Legislature. dmoore@timesrecord.com jswinconeck@timesrecord.com

‘Solar’ Bowdoin

• BOWDOIN COLLEGE has amped up its green energy initiatives, deriving 1.2 megawatts from solar power to provide 8 percent of its electricity. The college boasts more than 4,400 solar panels at its athletic complex, along with a 654-kW solar farm at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.