If there’s a new Maine utility, who will manage it?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 10, 2023

If Maine voters approve a publicly owned power company to replace the two dominant utilities, they’ll hand over thousands of miles of transmission and distribution lines to an as-yet-unknown operator. Backers say they can hire a contractor to do the work of the two investor-owned utilities. Opponents are less certain. The question of who will manage the grid in Maine lies at the foundation of the effort to ditch the state’s two investor-owned utilities. Arguments over management capabilities, credentials of overseers and, most especially, politics have made it a volatile discussion since the citizens’ initiative was filed.