By Michael Shepherd - March 1, 2023
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📷 Jim Wright of Cornville, a Central Maine Power Co. worker and spokesperson, appears in a new TV ad funded by CMP's parent against a quasi-public takeover of Maine's major utilities.

Good morning from Augusta. There's a long list of legislative committee hearings in the State House today. Here's the agenda, and here's your soundtrack for the subject line.

What we're watching today

A new ad from Maine's biggest utility highlights one advantage in a familiar accent. The public phase of the campaign for a quasi-public takeover of the state's major utilities is just beginning, even though we are years and millions of dollars into the war of words over the idea that will face Maine voters on the November ballot.

The question would buy out the infrastructure of Maine's two major utilities, Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power, and put the system under the control of an elected board. Proponents argue that lower public borrowing rates would allow for cheaper costs over time and that the new entity would be more responsive, while the utilities say it would put taxpayers at risk.

The campaign for a quasi-public takeover is being led by Our Power, a political group run by former House Majority Leader Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, who championed a similar measure in the Legislature that was vetoed in 2021 by Gov. Janet Mills. The utilities are solely funding the campaign against the initiative, injecting $12.9 million into their political committees by 2022's end.

They are now flexing that muscle. CMP's political group launched a round of ads on Wednesday featuring Jim Wright of Cornville, the worker who rode the utility's legendary "no line is safe to touch, evah" ads to statewide fame in the 1990s. He makes a simple case against the question, citing the utilities' $13.5 billion estimate on borrowing that would be required.

"It could mean higher taxes or cuts to critical services we use every day," he said.

That case is speculative, since the new agency would not be directly tied to the state budget and the tax code. The cost of the utility buyout would likely be subject to a long bout of legal wrangling. A study conducted for the state in 2020 found that rates could go up initially under a consumer-owned utility like the one being proposed here, but that they were likely to go down over time.

But the round of ads highlight a political reality that distinguishes this campaign from the last one that CMP waged and lost over its $1 billion corridor project in 2021. While the utility and its allies swamped opponents by spending $64 million on their campaign, anti-corridor forces found $27 million in funding largely from power companies fighting CMP for regional market share.

It is not clear where Our Power is going to draw comparable funding from, since it only raised $550,000 through year's end for its campaign. That has been enough the get the question on the ballot, but it is not enough to start an advertising blitz. CMP is already well on its way to dominating the airwaves.

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News and notes

📷 Frank Mitchell rides home with groceries while wearing a face covering in Portland on Nov. 17, 2020, in Portland. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

🛍️ Legislative Republicans want to erode Maine's 5-cent grocery bag fee.

◉ Two measures to weaken the single-use plastic bag ban and associated fee implemented in stores and restaurants after a pandemic-related delay in 2021 are getting hearings before the Legislature's environment committee on Wednesday. Watch here at 9:30 a.m.

◉ The bills take different tacks. One from freshman Rep. Chad Perkins, R-Dover-Foxcroft, and a host of other Republicans, allows stores to get out of the plastic bag ban if they have a recycling receptacle. The other one, sponsored by Rep. Michael Lemelin, R-Chelsea, would just end the fee.

◉ Republicans, including former Gov. Paul LePage, criticized the program during the 2022 campaign. The party likely does not have the power to weaken it, but it looks certain to be a perennial bill from their side in the Legislature.

🏛️ Maine's House speaker was in Washington to meet with counterparts.

◉ House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, joined the nation's four other Black speakers in Washington on Monday in a meeting led by Susan Rice, a top domestic policy adviser to President Joe Biden, and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, another senior Biden adviser. Her two-day visit was part of White House events celebrating Black History Month.

◉ Among the topics discussed were housing access, gun violence prevention and reproductive rights, according to a White House readout of the meeting. On the second priority, Talbot Ross may find herself at odds with Mills, who has resisted gun-control proposals like the speaker is backing this year.

◉ "While it is an honor to be included at events at the White House, it was equally critical that I used my platform and this trip to highlight Maine’s need for federal support in the areas of housing, food insecurity, support for the care economy and crucial investments in infrastructure," Talbot Ross said in a statement.

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What we're reading

➡️ Sen. Angus King's Social Security idea puts him to the right of his Maine colleague.

♻️ This "foreseeable disaster" took recycling away in a large swath of Maine. Here's how it happened over the years.

💱 We have the numbers on what a national debt default could mean for Mainers.

🌬️ Aroostook residents want more local benefits under a huge wind project.

⚖️ A Brewer baby's 2021 death was caused by shaking, a state official said in testimony contradicting the father's murder defense.

Correction: An item in Tuesday's newsletter misstated the retirement age for Social Security. It is now 67.

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