PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 29, 2021
It seems that at least half of Maine doesn’t like Central Maine Power. When you have a state-sanctioned monopoly and are guaranteed a return on your investment of 10-12 percent, you have an obligation to try to provide good service. It appears that they never got that memo. I am not about to make excuses for CMP; however, the current proposal to have a nonprofit entity buy them is well intentioned and misguided. The idea of a publicly elected board oversee the hiring of another company, which will come in and fix all of the issues we have and magically improve everything CMP does, is unrealistic. The Public Utilities Commission could play a more active role in regulating CMP, forcing them to uphold their end of the bargain by investing far more in improving our grid. Perhaps with aggressive enforcement, Avangrid might decide to sell CMP to a large utility that has proven it can do the job of delivering electricity and maintaining the grid. ~ Adam Lee, Cumberland