PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 18, 2022
Dozens of Mainers sounded off for nearly seven hours Friday on a proposal from Gov. Janet Mills to hold electric utilities more accountable and possibly force them to be sold if they can’t improve their service. Some of the speakers praised the bill, which would have the Maine Public Utilities Commission grade the electric companies each quarteron service, reliability and other factors, and penalize them if they perform poorly. Critics of the bill argued that it would be ineffective, give too much power to the PUC – whose members are appointed, not elected – and is really an effort to short-circuit a push to convert the state’s two major investor-owned utilities to consumer-owned entities.