Solar advocates get reprieve from controversial rule in advance of lawsuit ruling

Maine’s rooftop solar installers won a four-month reprieve Tuesday when the Maine Public Utilities Commission voted to delay implementation of a rule on how people who install new systems next year will be compensated for electricity they feed into the grid.

Led by the Conservation Law Foundation, clean-energy advocates are challenging the PUC’s net-energy billing rule in Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Oral arguments are set for Dec. 13.

“We argue that the revised rule must be invalidated, because it assesses new rates and charges to net-energy billing customers in violation of various statutes,” said Sean Mahoney, the group’s executive vice president.

Mahoney noted that Supreme Judicial Court decisions after oral arguments typically take at least a month, and up to six months. The new date set by the PUC makes it more likely that a court ruling will be in hand before the planned new rule goes into effect.

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