Members of the Maine Public Utilities Commission deserve a round of applause for voting unanimously to dismiss Central Maine Power’s (CMP’s) egregious rate hike request.

CMP wanted to collect an additional $1.7 billion from customers over the next five years, adding $420 a year to household bills while giving itself $700 million in profit. 

It took clarity of purpose and fortitude for the commissioners to determine the proposal was so unreasonably skewed toward the interests of CMP’s shareholders that it would have been a waste of time to try to turn it into something acceptable. 

Just two days after the commissioners publicly announced their decision to dismiss the utility’s request, but before agency staff filed a formal written decision, CMP’s lawyers used a previously unexploited loophole to preemptively withdraw the case. They did so in an attempt to dodge the consequences of proposing such a self-interested and lopsided proposal. If our regulators had had a chance to issue their final order in writing, it would likely have established a precedent that future commissions would have been bound to uphold to put the interests of Maine people front and center in utility rate cases. 

If CMP spent a fraction of the time it spends on evading public oversight on being a good utility partner for the people and businesses of Maine, we’d be in a much better position in facing some of our biggest challenges — energy affordability and climate action top among them.   

Rebecca Schultz
Senior Advocate, Climate & Clean Energy
Natural Resources Council of Maine
Augusta