What’s the problem?
Most of Maine’s electrical grid is run by two unpopular for-profit companies, Central Maine Power (CMP) and Versant.
CMP is owned by a Spanish company named Iberdrola whose largest shareholder is the Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Company.
Versant is entirely owned by the Canadian city of Calgary.
The predatory, anti-consumer, profits-first practices of these companies have repeatedly resulted in investigations, fines, lawsuits, and settlements. Despite attempt by the PUC to reign-in these companies, these practices continue to deprive Mainers of their power, money, and dignity; they will not stop until we have control of our grid.
Maine has some of the least reliable and most expensive power in the USA. This is largely because Versant and CMP invest in infrastructure projects, equipment, and public opinion campaigns that put profits before reliability and service.
Electricity is being used for more and more purposes—such as heating buildings and powering cars. Responding to these demands in a cliamte-friendly way will require a more-reliable, and renewables-friendlier grid—one that Versant and CMP aren’t building.
What can we do about it?
The people of Maine can buy back our grid and restructure it as a consumer-owned utility (COU). COUs already serve small portions of Maine and the whole state of Nebraska, which has cheaper electricity rates than all its non-COU neighbors. Nationally, COUs serve 43 million people.
A non-profit Maine COU could do its routine borrowing at cheaper than for-profit utilities can due to government incentives and its nonprofit status, saving Maine billions of dollars on needed upgrades to the grid.
Solar and wind power are now cheaper than coal, oil, gas, and nuclear and are getting cheaper all the time. To deliver mass quantities of green, low-cost renewable power, tomorrow’s grid must be not only more robust than today’s but equipped with energy storage and other technologies that make it smart and flexible. A COU would be tasked with building a more renewables-friendly grid.
Our COU’s income would go to making Maine’s grid more reliable, robust, and renewables-friendly—not to profits for absentee owners. (Versant is owned wholly and CMP largely by foreign governments.)
A COU would be tasked with speeding deployment of universal broadband access in Maine.
Public Power would mean cheaper, more reliable, greener power for Maine!
How would a COU work?
Maine ratepayers would buy Versant’s and CMP’s share of the grid at fair market price using money raised by low-interest revenue bonds paid for by electricity sales. The resulting COU would be a regulated nonprofit, not an arm of the State. Utility workers would keep their jobs and union contracts. Towns would continue to get the same property tax income they now get from Versant and CMP. However, importantly the voting members of the COU’s governing board would be elected by the people of Maine. This model helps ensure direct accountability to the customers who rely on the utility service.
After a study comissioned from London Economics International, a bipartisan bill that would have enabled Mainers to vote in Nov. 2021 on whether they want a COU was passed by the Maine Legislature was passed in 2021. Unfortunately, this was vetoed Governor Janet Mills who critiqued its lack of “robust public participation” despite an incredible 9+ hours of public comment on the issue.
Fortuntaely, the people of Maine still have an option: we can put the proposal on the 2023 ballot as a citizen petition. To do so, we need to collect about 75,000 signatures by October 2022. Do you want to see this happen? Join us in bringing about this historic and much-needed change for all the people of Maine.
Who is Maine Public Power?
Maine Public Power—a project of Maine DSA—is part of the Our Power coalition. In early 2021, we supported passage of L.D. 1708 in the state legislature. Now, after the governor’s veto, we are working with coalition partners to bring the vote to Mainers via a citizen initiative. Through all of this, we are committed to building a network of organizers across the state to bring accountability to our state utilities.