PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 31, 2022
Dueling campaigns for and against the creation of a consumer-owned electric utility in Maine each announced Monday that they had collected enough signatures to put their competing visions in front of voters in November 2023. Our Power, the lead organizer behind the push for a consumer-owned electric distribution company, presented more than 80,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office. The office must certify at least 63,067 signatures for the question to appear on the ballot. The citizens initiative would create the Pine Tree Power Co., described as a privately operated, nonprofit utility. A business and labor coalition called Maine Affordable Energy conducted a campaign aimed at forcing a statewide vote on any new government debt of over $1 billion, with exceptions for debt issued by a handful of agencies that include the Maine Turnpike Authority and the Finance Authority of Maine. The group announced it had collected 92,164 signatures to put the issue on the ballot next November.