Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor, columnist and reporter for 40 years. He welcomes comment at [email protected].

It was a good idea in 1973, and it’s a better idea now. Public power is an idea whose time has come in Maine — if lawmakers and the next governor truly listen to what ratepayers are saying.

The last time Maine voters seriously considered what was planned to be the Power Authority of Maine it got a favorable reception, with enthusiastic support from then-Gov. Ken Curtis, following an unsuccessful legislative attempt in 1971. Curtis wanted to shake up what he saw as lax utility regulation by the Maine Public Utilities Commission, and saw public power as a valuable yardstick to assess the rates being charged by Central Maine Power and two smaller investor-owned utilities.

The proposal led initial polls by 2-1, but after a relentless and expensive lobbying campaign by CMP it failed by a similar margin. Sound familiar? The 2023 initiative to replace CMP and Versant with the cooperative Pine Tree Power Authority was rejected by more than 70% of the voters.

Curtis had the better idea. Replacing CMP more than a century into its existence is probably hopeless. Creating a state power authority to control new generation — now being built entirely by private owners with ratepayers paying the freight — makes a lot more sense.

The Power Authority of Maine’s big asset would have been the Dickey-Lincoln hydroelectric dams on the St. John River in far northern Maine, a project authorized by Congress but never funded. Now, the asset a power authority could own would be Aroostook Wind, a 1,200-megawatt turbine assemblage to be built in the same region.

As described last week, the Maine PUC issued a second request for proposals that would essentially allow other New England states to buy into Aroostook Wind on the same terms as Maine utilities. Giving away much of Maine’s most valuable renewable energy resource will be unacceptable to most Mainers, and we thus can’t rely on the PUC  regulatory process to create maximum public benefits.

For that we need a public agency using tax-free bonds that significantly lower project costs, not to mention excluding the guaranteed profits CMP and other private utilities add to the mix.

It’s a big undertaking, but a necessary one. Aside from the ill-conceived 2023 takeover referendum, the Legislature has shown some interest. In 2022, Sen. Nicole Grohoski’s bill to create the Maine Generation Authority passed the House but failed in the Senate.

I prefer Power Authority of Maine or Maine Power Authority. Although new generating assets are the first order of business, a public financing agency should be able to make strategic investments in transmission and distribution, too.

An independent agency that’s publicly controlled can avoid other pitfalls. After Gov. Paul LePage blocked any incentives for solar generation, the Legislature took advantage of his absence in 2019 to provide subsidies that proved far more generous than needed to attract investment.

A brief gold rush ensured as solar arrays were built around the state, while the subsidies measurably drove up rates. Though since curtailed, other ratepayers are effectively subsidizing those with the wherewithal to invest in solar farms — not the kind of spare cash available to the average ratepayer.

When the New Deal provided federally subsidized and owned electricity across the South and West, Maine and New England missed out. We have one rural cooperative serving part of Washington County and a handful of small municipal utilities, and that’s it.

As New York’s governor, Franklin Roosevelt in 1931 authorized the largest and overall most successful public power effort, the New York Power Authority. Along with the federal Tennessee Valley Authority, Bonneville Power Authority and others, host states realize significantly lower rates and greater reliability.

Maine’s on the cusp of investments in electric generation that could dwarf even the largest existing sources — primarily dams once owned by CMP, whose forced sale to Brookfield, a huge energy conglomerate, produced no discernable public benefits. CMP itself was first sold to New York State Gas & Electric, then to Iberdrola, the Spanish energy giant for which Maine is not much more than a blip on the globe.

It’s no wonder the public feels so powerless when confronting what is, after food and shelter, among the vital necessities of modern life. Building a new electric system by relying entirely on private investment and the PUC’s RFP process makes little sense. Public power can combine cost savings, financing and reliability with a sense of control and accountability now sorely lacking.

This will not be easy, simple or quick. But we will never have an opportunity better than the present to start.