PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 29, 2021
The good news: Maine has set ambitious climate goals, including a requirement to use 80 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050. The bad news: Our current investor-owned utilities, Central Maine Power and Versant, are incapable of delivering on these requirements. They are profit-maximizing monopolies, who are guaranteed a high rate of return on their investments. CMP and Versant are owned by foreign banks and governments. They operate to maximize investors’ profits — not the interests of Maine ratepayers. Instead of investor ownership, a consumer-owned utility is a far better business model. Governed by its customers and with a bold climate mission, the nonprofit Pine Tree Power Company can support renewables and electrification of homes and transit by borrowing money at a much lower rate and with more willingness – because it’s our utility. ~ Matthew Cannon, Sierra Club Maine chapters