SEACOAST ONLINE • October 23, 2022
Pine Tree Power, aka “Our Power,” is virtually certain to appear on the ballot next year. It would pledge Maine ratepayers to buy the assets of the two privately owned utilities, CMP and Versant. CMP alone says its buyout cost would be $13.5 billion – which is far more than all debt now held by the State of Maine. It’s a lot to spend on a solution that wouldn’t necessarily fix the problem. There may be better way, starting with a focus on what we’re buying. Maine’s highly ambitious goals for converting from fossil fuels to renewables depends on generating, or importing, vastly more power than we use today, perhaps two or three times as much. The state could start small and build up, proposing, and acquiring, new solar, wind and any other cost-effective, non-fossil fuel sources. If Maine owned power generation, there’d be little point in buying CMP and Versant assets. It could direct where lines are built while beefing up regulation. ~ Douglas Rooks