Consumer-owned utility proponents spend Election Day gathering support for referendum

Over 200 volunteers across Maine collected signatures Tuesday as part of an effort to replace investor-owned utilities like Central Maine Power with a consumer-owned model, using Election Day as a chance to gather support for a referendum that proponents hope will appear on the November 2022 ballot.

The referendum effort is being spearheaded by Our Power, a coalition that supported a bill in the last legislative session to create a consumer-owned utility in Maine. Volunteers with Our Power, Maine Democratic Socialists of America, 350 Maine, Sierra Club Maine and the Maine People’s Alliance (of which Beacon is a project) were at around 175 polling places Tuesday to gather signatures, organizers said. Supporters will need to collect a little over 63,000 signatures by the end of January to put the issue on the ballot in November 2022.

The proposed referendum would create the Pine Tree Power Company, a nonprofit consumer-owned utility that would replace Maine’s unpopular investor-owned utilities, CMP and Versant.

As Beacon previously reported, proponents of a consumer-owned utility argue it would lead to more reliable and cost-effective electricity while also facilitating Maine’s transition to renewable power. Furthermore, a significant impetus behind the push for a consumer-owned utility has been the low ratings of Maine’s investor-owned utilities. Maine has the worst and longest outages in the country and CMP and Versant both fare poorly in customer satisfaction. In 2020, for example, CMP ranked last nationally in customer satisfaction while Versant was third worst.

Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/consumer-owned-utility-proponents-spend-election-day-gathering-support-for-referendum/