L.D. 1708 would authorize a government takeover of both Central Maine Power and Versant. As a longtime CMP employee, I know the bill under consideration is not in the best interest of working families, Maine businesses or the employees of the utility companies. Having the state periodically select a new private operator to run Maine’s utility grid would likely result in an unstable workforce and provide no ability to plan for long-term reliability upgrades, which are needed in order to ensure that the grid of the future is in place to support green energy initiatives and provide a safe, reliable grid.

At a time when Maine is trying to recover from the pandemic and the state is losing manufacturing jobs, we do not need to lose more jobs in the utility sector to out-of-state utilities that would be hired to manage Maine’s electric grid. Utilities are regulated businesses. A state buyout of the utilities is unnecessary and comes with great costs to Maine ratepayers, with no guarantee of any future savings. The debt load associated with a buyout of this magnitude could jeopardize the state’s credit rating and limit the borrowing that is needed to address infrastructure, housing, school funding and other critical needs the state has in order to attract business and growth.

The high debt load associated with a buyout will ensure that electricity bills will increase for decades to come as the debt is repaid, on top of the costs of owning and running the electric grid.

 

Susan Clary

Livermore Falls