Both chambers of the Legislature on Tuesday unanimously overrode Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of the bill fixing a clerical error in the state’s 2013 energy conservation law that otherwise would have led to nearly $38 million less funding for an energy-efficiency program overseen by Efficiency Maine.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission in May decided against reconsidering its controversial March decision to essentially cut $38 million from Efficiency Maine’s budget based on a literal interpretation of the 2013 law in which a single “and” was inadvertently left out of the statute’s language.
The Portland Press Herald reported that lawmakers in the House voted 144-0 and the Senate voted 35-0 to overturn the governor’s veto. The bill, L.D. 1215, will now become law.
