The owners of Maine’s largest power companies have spent more than $37 million to defeat Question 3, while the leading supporter of a public utility takeover has spent just over $1 million.
central maine power
Posted inBusiness, Election 2023, Politics
Loss of property tax looms over mayors’ Question 3 concerns
The mayors of nine cities say they fear losing property taxes if Question 3 passes, despite language in the enabling legislation that should prevent that from happening.
advertisement
Posted inBusiness, Election 2023, Politics
Public power question sharpens voters’ concerns about what’s at stake
A proposal to take over the state’s two investor-owned utilities raises worries about reliability, politics, workers’ rights, lawsuits and costs. Some are still in the dark.
Posted inBusiness
$30 million grant to bolster CMP grid a down payment on big projects
The money will be spent installing new devices that allow power to be restored more quickly and often remotely. The limited number of new devices already in service restored power to 74,000 customers in less than five minutes, said CMP.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
CMP receives $30 million grant to improve grid reliability
The money is expected to be used to buy equipment mounted on the poles that will act like circuit breakers and allow the grid to rebalance more quickly following outages.
Posted inBusiness, Election 2023, Local & State, Politics
Foreign ownership in CMP parent clouds 2 ballot measures
A foreign government’s ownership stake in a utility is complicated, and some experts say it doesn’t matter anyway because ownership of a regulated utility doesn’t translate into governance.
Posted inBusiness, Election 2023, Politics
Conservation Law Foundation opposes public power measure
The New England environmental group’s stance on the controversial Pine Tree Power ballot initiative differs from that of 2 other well-known conservation groups.
Posted inOp-eds, Opinion
Commentary: Question 3 aims to fix what’s wrong with CMP, Versant
Their rates are too high and their reliability is too low. And they’ve had plenty of time to fix both and haven’t.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
Who could be a third-party operator? Here’s the test
As part of the legislation connected with Question 3, the Public Utilities Commission would determine that a transmission and distribution utility that serves more than 50,000 customers is considered “unfit” to operate if four or more of the conditions listed below are met. Using this criteria, neither Central Maine Power not Versant could be considered […]
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
If there’s a new Maine utility, who will manage it?
Politics, qualifying credentials and managerial expertise collide in the debate over who would operate a publicly owned utility.