By Michael Shepherd - Aug. 11, 2023
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The Maine utility takeover campaign is marked by arguments on two main subjects. Cost and climate are emerging as the central policy issues in the battle over Question 3, the item on the statewide November ballot that would put an elected board in charge of Maine's electric infrastructure.

It is no surprise that there is no agreement on those subjects between proponents and the utility-funded campaign opposing the effort. But those disagreements are both wider and more subtle, with some of Maine's top environmental groups not taking sides or staying neutral on the idea so far.

The utility takeover's roots are in a long effort from former Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham. While he ultimately failed to get a similar measure past Gov. Janet Mills' veto pen in 2021, the driving forces were low public approval of the state's major utilities at that time and a cost argument holding that an elected utility could avail itself of lower borrowing rates and save money in the long run.

That idea was partially born out by an independent study conducted for the state and released in 2020, which found rates would likely rise in the short term under such a scheme but decrease over the long term. Central Maine Power Co. and its allies have answered that by citing the risk of borrowing billions of dollars to put utility infrastructure in the hands of the public.

The ballot question put forward by Our Power, the political group running the takeover effort, also attempts to address the climate angle. The new utility's initial five-year plan would have to include more capacity for renewables and building out electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

This amounts to "a legal mandate" to look out for customers and the planet, an Our Power spokesperson said this week. A scan of letters to the editor on behalf of the campaign finds lots of discussion about potential climate benefits, while the CMP-led campaign has pointed to consumer-owned utilities that have a relatively low share of renewables as part of their mix.

Environmental groups have agonized over these questions. Maine Conservation Voters, which voted to stay neutral, decided in the end that "it wasn’t clear to us that utility ownership structure was the critical factor" in having cleaner electric grids, Kathleen Meil, the group's senior director of policy and partnerships, said.

The major issues in this campaign lie between the short-term and long-term costs at stake, plus whether the new utility would indeed spur a cleaner grid. There is serious tension in the progressive environmental community over the latter effects, which is a theme to watch as November nears.