Maine has no gas production and no "fracking," but its citizens and policymakers benefit from the shale gas boom. Encouragingly, some there know it too. Annual power savings alone top $200 million.
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/10/21/business/fracking-for-gas-to-thank-for-maines-blossoming-competitive-electricity-market/.
Made possible by the shale gas boom low-priced electricity has caused a blossoming of the state's competitive retail electricity market and now hundreds of thousands of customers are shopping for electricity in Maine and saving money.
Specifically, the Bangor Daily News writes: "In a nutshell, fracking for shale gas has increased the natural gas supply, thus reducing its price for power plants that use it to generate electricity...the wholesale price of electricity in New England tracks the gas price."
In Maine, the price charged to non-shopping customers called the standard offer is a product that reflects power purchases over a three-year period. Current market prices are well below the standard offer product and so competitive electricity suppliers entered the Maine market and are offering savings of about 10%. Those savings are enough to have even many residential and small commercial customers to switch to competitive power suppliers.
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