After eight years under former Gov. Paul LePage, who during his tenure worked to block renewable energy legislation, the Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology is in “ecstatic chaos” in these opening days of the new Maine Legislature, said longtime member Rep. Deane Rykerson, D-Kittery.

An explosion of bills have been submitted to the committee, which are expected to get a favorable ear from a Democratic-led Legislature and a new governor who has made climate change a key priority.

Solar energy initiatives, including community solar, weatherization funding, offshore wind, increasing the state’s renewable energy portfolio standards, a carbon pricing proposal, a continued look at a controversial Hydro Quebec natural gas pipeline proposed through the state – all are expected to be on the table if not this term then in the next and subsequent terms.

“There’s so much pent up energy. The number of bills before the committee has gone up dramatically,” said state Sen. Mark Lawrence, D-Eliot, who was recently named Senate chairman of the committee. "There used to be 50 to 70 bills and now there are more than 100 bills – and that’s without the governor’s bills. My goal now is to make sure we set our priorities."

And those are only the bills before the Energy Committee. The Environmental Priorities Coalition, a group of environmental, conservation and public health organizations, has included among its priorities statewide plastic bag and polystyrene bans. Rykerson also said there will be a push to adopt a universal state building code, which will include energy codes. Planning for sea level rise is another area where Mainers are likely to see legislative action.

Overarching it all, Gov. Janet Mills this week announced the appointment of former Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree to head a new Office of Innovation and the Future. Pingree has been charged with engaging cabinet-level departments, the Legislature, stakeholder organizations, the public and federal partners in long-term planning on a range of issues, including climate change.

With regard to energy policy, Lawrence said he and House chairman Rep. Seth Berry have been meeting with government officials to determine Mills’ priorities. It’s clear to him, for instance, that making solar more readily available to Mainers is one.

It is likely that some variation of a comprehensive solar energy bill that died by two votes in the House in 2016 will come forward again, said Rykerson. That bill had buy-in from utilities as well as environmentalists but was vetoed by LePage and did not attain an override.

The bill aimed to add 196 megawatts of solar energy to the state’s energy portfolio over four years, up from 20 megawatts and make changes in the “net metering” system governing utility credits for solar customers who feed excess power back into the grid, among other provisions.

Bills to develop “community solar farms” are also expected to receive a favorable ear from Mills and the committee. One such bill that failed to make it out of the Legislature last session would allow homeowners, renters and small business customers to receive their electricity from large solar farms.

“Gov. Mills intends to work with the Legislature to remove the cap on community solar,” said Mills spokesman Scott Ogden. “Gov. Mills hopes to see cities, towns and school districts eventually producing their own electricity.”

Weatherization efforts are another priority for her, said Ogden. Last week, Mills released a senior housing bond that LePage had refused to sign, which included money to begin weatherizing homes for senior citizens.

Mills has also spoken about the need to jumpstart talks with the University of Maine to develop an offshore wind project, and both Rykerson and Lawrence agree this issue is necessary to pursue. However, they said action may be postponed until next session or beyond simply because of its complexity. According to Lawrence, the committee has eight new members out of 13, including him, and several are new to the Legislature as well. As a result, much of the committee’s time now is being spent simply bringing people up to speed on this and other complicated energy and utilities issues.

Arguably among the most broad-reaching bills that will come before the Energy Committee is one Rykerson is filing, along with legislators in 10 other states including all other New England states. Its intent is to create a new market-driven carbon pricing system that is more aggressive than the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Rykerson is expected to announce the bill in Augusta on Tuesday.

He said RGGI is “great and working well, but not enough is being charged per ton of carbon ($5 per ton) and it covers only electricity generation, which is only 38 percent of our carbon footprint” – the other two being heating oil and transportation.

His bill would create a Carbon Content Assessment Fund that would set a cap on wholesale distribution of butane, coal, clear diesel fuel, gasoline, fuel oil, kerosene, natural gas and propane. Distributors would be assessed $5 per metric ton of carbon content in fiscal year 2021, which would increase to $40 per metric ton by FY28 and stay there. Money collected would go back to ratepayers in reductions to their electricity bills.

“I think we’re going way too slow if we set a goal of 80 percent renewable by 2050, as a lot of bills want to do,” he said. “We need to get carbon pricing higher. It’s the real obvious solution people have been talking about for many years. You can pollute but you will pay.”

He admits not all environmental organizations are willing to support the bill thus far, expressing likely lack of Republican support, but others like the Sierra Club and Citizens Climate Lobby are behind it. He also said the bill would translate into higher prices at the pump and for heating oil. “But that creates an incentive to get rid of oil and get a heat pump” or purchase a hybrid or electric car, he said.

Meanwhile, Lawrence said the committee is meeting with legal analysts, the Public Utilities Commission, the state’s public advocate, E911 and other stakeholders, preparing for the upcoming session so they are ready to handle these many bills.

“It’s an interesting committee and this is going to be an interesting session,” he said.