Crews clean up downed tree limbs and work on utility poles while trying to restore power in Kittery, Maine, on October 31, 2017., felling trees, knocking down power lines, and wiping out electricity for nearly half a million people. Larissa Smith, a longtime Maine resident who was living in Freeport at the time, lost power at her home for nearly three weeks.
CMP and Versant have poured tens of millions of dollars into efforts to oppose the ballot measure, but their opposition isn’t the only obstacle. Even if Maine votes yes, a public power transformation won’t happen immediately.
Berry wanted to help folks like his constituents in Harpswell — which is why, in 2019, he introduced a bill to create a public power authority for Maine. He cites saving people money and making energy more affordable as his main reasons. But he also knows that decarbonizing Maine’s economy, and transitioning fossil-fuel dependent sectors like transportation and heating to renewable energy, will require huge investments to expand the capacity of Maine’s power grid.
Jonathan Fulford, a former state senate candidate and a co-founder of the Our Power group, says he always knew that the proposal would come down to a citizens initiative, for the simple reason that the idea was likely too radical for state policymakers. “Now you have to educate people so that when the attack ads and disinformation campaign gets going, they are resilient enough to stick with why this makes sense for them to vote for it,” Fulford said. “That’s a whole nother campaign.”
“They’re very high. I hate CMP,” they responded, setting down some grocery bags they were just about to carry in. “Watching the ads really made me angry.” By far the biggest concern, Ritch says, is the cost of buying out the utilities — a cost that will eventually be borne by ratepayers. “You just can’t get past that huge debt that Pine Tree Power would start with,” he said.
Ursula Schryver of the American Public Power Association, an industry group representing consumer-owned utilities, says the real number will likely end up somewhere in the middle. But she emphasized that the debt will be paid off incrementally through revenues over a period of decades, not all at once. She also stressed that once the state owns the power grid, it becomes a financial asset. “It’s kind of like when you buy a house.
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