The following opinion was written by Charles Ellis of Westbrook.
Mainers are fed up with CMP. We’re tired of rising electricity costs. We’re tired of the lack of quality service. So fed up in fact that we’re seriously considering turning over the delivery of electricity to the state government.
Those behind Pine Tree Power would have you believe that this isn’t government-owned, it’s a non-profit owned by the people. But stop and ask yourself what owned by the people really is. We the people of the United States of America “own” our country, that’s what a Representative Republic is but who it is run by and who really holds the “power” is the government.
Regardless of whether the “structure” is a board elected from among the people or not this is another government agency that would be overseen by elected officials in Augusta giving them power and control over our lives.
I, for one, don’t have any desire to give them more power and control. Governments across the board are some of the least efficient, most corrupt, and worst-run organizations in existence. Do you really think they’re going to lower your energy costs? Guess again.
In addition to buying CMP back from their foreign company, they are planning to expend resources to convert more of Maine’s power grid to “clean energy” and I have news for you. Clean energy is much more expensive than what we’re using now which aside from the corruption and mismanagement is going to cause your power bill to go up. Still interested?
I get it. I’m not happy with how much my power bill has spiked in recent years. I’m tired of being “served” by the worst-rated utility in the country. I’m also incredibly dissatisfied with a foreign company owning CMP that cares nothing about the people of Maine but cares only about profit. I don’t think it’s good for Maine. But is this the right solution? Or is this going to make things worse?
It’s also important to note that CMP doesn’t produce your energy, they deliver it. Your bill doesn’t have the energy company's name on it but the majority of the rise in cost isn’t due to CMP at all, it’s due to the companies they buy your energy from. Those companies are raising prices because of increased costs that they’ve experienced due to the Biden administration's bad policies and the war in Ukraine. How does Pine Tree Power fix that? The short answer is: they don’t.
No doubt CMP isn’t doing themselves or Mainers any favors but handing over our power to the government is probably the worst solution we could come up with.