William D. Shipman Papers

The collection contains papers of William D. Shipman, a professor of economics at Bowdoin College, reflecting his participation in studies and on committees about several proposed electric power projects in Maine in the 1970's. Projects included the Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project and the possibility of power output from the tides in Passamaquoddy Bay.

Professor Shipman received his Ph.D. from Columbia and was the Adams-Catlin Professor of Economics at Bowdoin. He worked in the field of energy economics and policy and served as a consultant to the New England Regional Commission, the Maine Public Utilities Commission, the Maine Office of Energy Resources, and the New England Governors' Conference. He was the author of several books and reports on energy policy and the electric power supply in Maine, including Alternative proposals for electric power development in Maine, published in 1964; Energy policy for the state of Maine, issued in 1973; and Tidal power and aquaculture in Cobscook Bay: a preliminary assessment, published in 1976. In his 1964 report he provided an analysis of the costs and benefits in terms of electric power from proposals for power development of the International Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project and the Upper St. John River Power Development.

In 1975 he undertook a study financed by the Maine Department of Marine Resources to assess the economic feasibility of tidal-power production in Cobscook Bay. In the study he attempted to identify and measure the costs and benefits of a tidal power facility combined with an aquaculture project capable of cultivating one or more marketable types of fish.

Professor Shipman was appointed by Governor James B. Longley in 1976 to the Citizens' Dickey-Lincoln Project Impact Review Committee. The eight-member committee was charged with providing an impartial evaluation of the social, economic and environmental impacts of the Dickey-Lincoln dam project. This proposed hydroelectric power project on the St. John River in northern Maine was designed to be a low-cost source of power for both Maine and New England. It was to have two dams, one in the village of Dickey and the other eleven miles downstream at Lincoln School. The St. John River and many streams in the area were to be flooded to create an 86,000-acre reservoir above the Dickey Dam. Estimated to cost $463 million, the construction was fiercely opposed by various environmental groups as well as citizens of Maine objecting to its high cost. The Review Committee held several meetings around the state in 1976 at which various agencies and groups made presentations for or against the proposal. The Committee issued a report to Gov. Longley in 1977 in which members voted six to four against the project; the report also stated that the Committee felt it had not reached a clear consensus on a single recommendation. In an unsent letter to Gov. Longley written in 1978, Shipman indicates that he favored the project because "Dickey-Lincoln would at least help to offset the grim prospect of rising energy costs..." He was also a participant in a series of workshops held to consider the environmental studies associated with the Dickey-Lincoln project. However, the project was finally defeated in 1985.