EDGECOMB, Maine - Former business owner Erik Carlson claims the high cost of electricity forced him to shut down his wood pellet manufacturing business. 

 

The Boothbay Register reported that Erik Carlson is a certified forester and logger who runs C&L Forestry in Edgecomb. For the past two years, he also ran a small wood pellet manufacturing plant in Boothbay's industrial park. But he closed up shop after Central Maine Power Co. sent him a disconnection notice.

 

"I couldn't overcome the oppressive and unsustainable costs of electricity," Carlson told the Boothbay Register, a local newspaper, saying he had paid $30,000 in electrical bills for less than a year's worth of full production.

 

ARTICLE Wood pellets more harmful than fuel, could worsen climate change says scientists New research has revealed that substituting coal with wood as a means to generate power could make climate change worse for many decades.

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Carlson is a certified forester and logger who runs a logging operation in rural Maine. For the past two years he has ran his small wood pellet manufacturing plant, reports the Register, but was forced to close after Central Maine Power Co. sent him a disconnection notice.

The Register reports that other larger Maine wood pellet firms also struggle to pay the state's high electricity costs.

 

Other larger Maine wood pellet companies struggle with Maine's high electricity costs compared to the national average, as well, the newspaper reported. Maine Wood Pellets in Athens, for example, produces 400 tons of wood pellets per day and had an approximately $300,000 CMP monthly bill - forcing it to invest millions to build its own co-generation electricity plant.