There was no shortage of Latin in my childhood, as I was raised Catholic. During Mass, the good Father would quote Galatians, “Ut sementem feceris ita metes.” I would yawn and wipe the boredom from my eyes, not understanding the message. My mom would nudge me out of a daydream. I would straighten up in the pew for a second or two. The Father would then translate, “You reap what you sow.”

Didn’t remember much about those services, but this passage stuck with me.

Fast forward to today, and my office is getting many calls from constituents about their stratospheric rise in their electricity bills. The calls go something like this, “Hey Mike what is going on? Is CMP taking us to the woodshed for not voting in the corridor? My bill is almost twice what I paid last month. Can you do something about this?”

Let’s rewind. I was and am a proponent of the corridor. I even advertised for a month on the radio before the election last November that the corridor was a good thing. People told me I was nuts wanting to vote for it, advocating for it, and for agreeing with Gov. Mills about it (that doesn’t happen often). But, for Maine it was and is the right play.

We’ll get back to this in a minute.

I wanted to tell those calling into my office, “Hey you reap what you sow! Hydro-Quebec would have given us the competition needed to keep the rates much lower. But, you voted against it!” Yet, I haven’t responded this way.

Instead, I set my team to work to investigate why the rates are going up, so as not to make a judgment on my own assumptions. We found the following that you may not know, but is available to the public around this very complex problem. Let me try to sum it up here.

First, Maine is the table set for a high-stakes card game for the consumers of Massachusetts. If Question 1 would have failed, those parties who bring power to Massachusetts customers would have to share with the party behind the corridor.

But now, with the help of those who voted for Question 1, Maine power is generated mostly by a Russian, Ukrainian-born billionaire who has citizenship in the U.S. and UK, a Florida-based behemoth, and a Texas rival, all using fossil fuels. Yet, a Spanish conglomerate wants to get into the action too by bringing in hydropower from Canada, down the trunk line.

Big-time players playing for big money in an energy hold’em.

Second, the current parties hold all the cards, but that is about to change. If Avangrid through the courts wins the ability to complete the corridor, which many suspect they will, it will be Avangrid’s deck. The corridor will go in and rates should retreat. This will take a couple years.

Third, the rate increase was not Central Maine Power seeking revenge on their customers for voting against the corridor. CMP is responsible for about 15% of the increase due to distribution costs. The remaining 80-85% increase is the current power generators, you know the billionaire, Florida, and Texas people mentioned earlier. The Maine Public Utility Commission on Nov. 17 of last year set these rates. The rates went into effect Jan. 1 of this year. Insult to injury, the supporters for Question 1 are being rewarded with this knee-buckling rate hike.

The corridor is still the right play in my opinion. I see economic growth on the horizon, and we are going to need a surplus of electricity to make that happen. There will be plenty of demand for anyone wanting to supply Maine with energy.  

In the meantime, we reap what we sow. We have high electricity rates for no other reason than they can do it.

But, there may be a way to recover your electricity costs by investing in these companies who benefit the most from not having a corridor, at least for a little while.

Mike Perkins of Oakland is a state representative.

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