MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 9, 2022
The Sept. 18 Telegram article by reporter Tux Turkel, about Central Maine Power’s request for an estimated $10-per-month rate increase to cover significant transmission network expansions, nicely illuminates a fundamental 21st-century political reality: Nobody wants to pay today to mitigate tomorrow’s large, unavoidable climate dangers. We question is CMP’s proposal to finance that expansion by seriously increasing electric bills for today’s consumers. An economically rational (and politically safer) approach would be for the Maine Public Utilities Commission to treat the new network construction as a capital cost initially financed by borrowing. ~ Donald Baker, former professor, Cornell University Law School, and Madge Baker, CMP customer, Shapleigh