BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 7, 2022
More than 50,000 Mainers have signed a petition to allow customers to own their utility. They are watching closely as the Legislature considers LD 1959, An Act To Ensure Transmission and Distribution Utility Accountability. Unfortunately, LD 1959 does not address the fundamental problem with our electric utilities. But the problem isn’t just poor service. It is the unnecessary cost of our current system. The legal structure in which our public utilities operate was established to guarantee profit for investors. Ratepayers pay investor-owned utilities for financing at above-market rates of around 10 percent. If consumers owned the utility instead of investors, we could finance grid improvements paying about 4 percent interest rates — typical for utility revenue bonds. This 6 percentage point difference would save billions of dollars. ~ John Brautigam, Our Power