AUGUSTA - The Maine Legislature has enacted a historic bill Wednesday sponsored by Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, to provide voters with the opportunity to replace Central Maine Power and Versant with the Pine Tree Power Company, a consumer-owned electric utility.
LD 1708 was enacted "under the hammer" in the House and by an 18-14 vote in the Senate. Earlier recorded votes in the House earned support from Republican, Independent and Democratic lawmakers.
The bill now goes to Gov. Janet Mills, who has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to sign the bill, veto it or let it go into law without her signature. If the bill becomes law, Maine voters will decide in a November referendum whether to move forward with Pine Tree Power.
With this historic action, we are calling for the chance to let Maine people decide our own energy future - the chance for more affordable, more reliable, cleaner and Maine-operated power and greater connectivity throughout Maine, said Berry, a former House majority leader and current House chair of the Legislature's Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee. The Pine Tree Power Company will finally let us reinvest the money from our electricity bills back into the grid instead of sending it to investors overseas who have never set foot in Maine. The most recent spate of outages and CMPs request for a double-digit rate increase makes this referendum all the more urgent.
Berrys bill is a carefully crafted, bipartisan measure that would let Maine people vote to create the consumer-owned utility and is the result of three years of research and refinement by the Legislature. The bills most recent amendment requires the Pine Tree Power Company to pay property taxes, ensuring municipalities will continue to receive the same level of property tax revenue and that the state-level valuation will remain the same after the transition.
Maine endures the worst and longest outages in the nation and the 10th highest rates in the nation. Maine ratepayers send $150-$325 million per year to the owners of CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola, and millions more to the owners of Versant. Versant is also Maine's most expensive mainland utility, and it now seeks a 25.4% rate hike.
Maine people deserve the right to self-determination and the Pine Tree Power company will provide just that, by serving Maine people instead of distant company shareholders in foreign lands, said Sen. Richard Bennett, R-Oxford, lead co-sponsor of the bill. Maine deserves a utility that puts Maine people and local, small businesses first, not profits for huge, foreign corporations.
Maines for-profit utilities, CMP and Versant, also rank at the bottom nationally for customer satisfaction, according to J.D. Powers authoritative survey of customer satisfaction for all large and mid-sized utilities. CMP is ranked worst of all 142 utilities in the survey, and Versant third worst.
The bills public hearing on May 20 drew strong bipartisan support from members of the public.
The supporters of this bill wish to take back our power, not because we are Democrats or Republicans, but because we are Mainers, said Berry.
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.
Bennett has served more than 12 years in the Maine Legislature, including a term as President of the Senate. He serves on the Environment and Natural Resources Committee and the Government Oversight Committee.
Contact:
Jackie Merrill [Berry] c. 812-1111