https://www.commondreams.org/news/maine-public-utility-referendum
Advocates Urge Mainers to Vote for First Statewide Consumer-Owned Utility
JULIA CONLEY
Oct 06, 2023
..."The "Yes on Question 3" campaign aims to create a new #nonprofit company called Pine Tree Power, which would purchase Central Maine Power (CMP) and Versant. The two companies currently provide #power to 96% of #Maine customers. The new company would be run by a board of directors elected by Maine voters, which advocates say would make the #utility far more accountable to #consumers than the investor-owned utilities have been.
Proponents have pointed to local utility takeovers which have resulted in lower rates for consumers, such as the case of the Long Island Power Authority. The publicly owned authority reduced electricity rates by 20% for customers, according to the American Public Power Association (APPA).
The grassroots Pine Tree Power campaign notes that consumer-owned utilities (COUs) are not a radical new idea in Maine, as 10 COUs serve 98 towns across the state. When one of the COUs attempted to expand and provide more customers in Kennebunk with lower rates and more reliable service, CMP halted the effort, leading one resident to say they were being "held hostage by the country's worst power company."
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But companies like CMP and Versant, whose profits and rates have soared in recent years while service has declined, are able to pour their vast resources into their own campaigns "to discourage communities from looking at their options," Ursula Schryver of APPA told the Current. The utilities have raised more than $27 million to oppose the Yes on Question 3 initiative.
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"Sometimes it's only government that can get the job done," said NRCM. "Take for example Efficiency Maine Trust (EMT), an independent quasi-government agency formalized in 2009 for not dissimilar reasons to the Pine Tree Power proposal, to correct for the disincentive utilities have to invest in energy efficiency. EMT, now with an annual budget of $100 million, implements energy efficiency and alternative energy programs across Maine, invests in businesses and workforce capacity, and has become a widely trusted resource for information to inform personal and business investment decisions. Just imagine what EMT could accomplish if it were working with cooperative utilities."...
