AUGUSTA - Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, presented LD 1847, An Act To Prohibit a Public Utility from Terminating or Disconnecting Service to a Public Safety Facility without Advance Notice and Approval, before the Legislature's Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee on Tuesday.
The bill would require a public utility to provide 60 days' advance written notice to public safety facilities of its intent to terminate or disconnect service, as well as to obtain prior authorization from the Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Public Safety.
Berry introduced the bill in response to two recent incidents in which Central Maine Power (CMP) almost mistakenly shut down electricity to critical public safety facilities in Maine. In each case, the issue was an error relating to CMP's billing system, which is based in Boston and is often not well suited to towns that pay multiple bills for numerous buildings and meters.
"Now more than ever, public safety depends on electricity," said Berry. "Lifesaving equipment for ambulances and fire trucks, electric vehicles for police departments and block heaters for other emergency vehicles all require electricity, even in the smallest and most rural facilities. CMP has now repeatedly failed to protect public safety, so it is our responsibility as a Legislature to require it."
The Maine Municipal Association (MMA) submitted testimony in support of the legislation, as did Bradley Plante, who was serving as interim town manager in Buckfield when CMP attempted to disconnect power at the town's fire/rescue facility last summer due to inadvertent billing and communication errors.
"We fortunately avoided a major incident which would have endangered the health, welfare and safety of the residents of Buckfield," said Plante. "Let us do the right thing and pass some proactive legislation before we have unnecessary loss of life due to an administrative error."
"This bill seeks to put measures in place so that this confusion never happens again," said Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, the bills lead co-sponsor. "The fact that this episode happened at all is yet more sad testimony to the extraordinary ineptitude of our foreign-owned utility in managing our critical, local electricity infrastructure."
The Legislature's Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee will hold a work session on the bill in the coming weeks.
Berry represents House District 55: Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Swan Island and most of Richmond. He previously served from 2006-2014, the final two years as House majority leader, and returned to the House in 2016.
Contact:
Jackie Merrill [Berry], c. 812-1111