Kimberly Lindlof is president and CEO of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce. 

When businesses decide where to grow, expand or invest, they look for a few basics they can count on: a skilled workforce, good infrastructure and predictable costs. Reliable, affordable electricity sits right at the center of that list.

Across Maine, employers are feeling the effects of rising and volatile energy costs. For a manufacturer, that can mean higher production expenses. For a small business, it can mean thinner margins. For growing companies, uncertainty around future energy costs can be enough to delay hiring or expansion. Energy reliability directly shapes business decisions made every day.

This challenge will only grow more important as Maine’s economy evolves. Electrification, advanced manufacturing, digital services and new technologies such as AI all rely on a steady power supply. These changes bring opportunity, but only if our energy grid is ready to support them over the long term.

That’s why it’s important to focus on the smartest assets we already have and use them well.

Hydropower is Maine’s largest advantage. The state has nearly 700 MW of installed hydropower capacity across roughly 50 facilities, supplying about 20% of Maine’s in-state electricity generation in a typical year. These are proven, durable assets. Many hydropower facilities operate for 50, 75, even 100 years. For businesses, that longevity and scale matter because it translates into long-term price stability and reliability.

Pumped storage hydropower strengthens that advantage even further. Functioning like a massive water battery, pumped storage can release stored energy for eight, 10, or more hours at a scale measured in hundreds or thousands of megawatts. That type of long-duration storage helps smooth peak demand, reduce price spikes and keep large employers running when the grid is under stress.

Maine has an opportunity to build on this strength. Take the proposed pumped-storage project in western Maine as an example. It would provide roughly 500 megawatts of capacity, enough to serve a large share of the state during critical hours. Projects of this size are all about preparing the grid for future growth. 

Planning ahead also means protecting what already works. Existing hydropower plants are a core part of Maine’s energy system. When they stay online, they provide dependable power at scale. When they shut down, they aren’t replaced one-for-one. The replacement is often higher-cost power, and those costs are eventually passed on to businesses and households.

Unfortunately, an overly long and uncertain federal licensing and relicensing process is pushing viable facilities offline. If we don’t take action now, we could lose even more.

Other rural states, such as Idaho, offer a clear lesson by treating hydropower as essential economic infrastructure, maintaining large-scale assets and using them to support reliable service and competitive rates. Maine can do the same.

That’s why I’m urging Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins to make hydropower license reform a top priority. Streamlining this process would protect existing capacity, strengthen reliability and help Maine businesses plan with confidence. Sen. King is already making strides by introducing legislation to cut red tape in the energy permitting process. It’s a great start, but we need our senators to stay focused on this priority.

Planning for the future doesn’t always mean starting from scratch. Sometimes it means recognizing that the largest, longest-lasting energy production and storage assets we have are already here and making sure they continue working at full scale for Maine’s businesses and communities for decades to come.

That’s a forward-looking investment, using proven technology to support growth before higher costs force our hand.