PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 3, 2022
As a progressive Democrat and a conservative Republican serving in the Maine House, we find ourselves on opposite sides of many issues that come before the Legislature. But one thing we agree on is that a government takeover of the state’s electric grid is a lousy idea. Recently (Maine Voices, April 29), the Press Herald ran a column by one of our colleagues, Rep. Seth Berry, promoting this idea. Here’s why we think he’s wrong: Seizing the state’s utilities would be enormously expensive. We agree our economy needs to transition away from fossil fuels and toward affordable forms of renewable energy. But seizing Central Maine Power and Versant and triggering a decade or two of legal and bureaucratic battles are not a good way to get us there. We see the effects of climate change almost every day, what we pay for our electricity and where it comes from are more important than ever. But upending that entire system and taking on astronomical debt aren’t going to get us any closer to an affordable clean-energy future. ~ Rep. Nathan Wadsworth, R-Hiram, and Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell