Maine to vote on whether to make electric power public

The ballot amendment up for a vote next week would establish “a new power company governed by an elected board to acquire and operate existing for-profit electricity transmission and distribution facilities in Maine.”

Supporters say this would increase control that the people have over something with a deep impact on their lives and maintain it could reduce outages. Opponents, meanwhile, say it would be too expensive.

Currently, Maine leads the nation in power outage frequency per customer. Two investor-owned utilities supply electricity to 97 percent of residents in the state.

Lucy Hochschartner, a spokesperson for the campaign in favor of the amendment, said that while the effort was fueled by state-specific frustrations, Mainers “are really deciding on whether to move to a fundamentally different kind of utility.”  

The politics:

• Gov. Janet Mills (D) opposes the measure
• Maine’s two senators, Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R), have not weighed in
• Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), from neighboring Vermont, backs the measure

Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.

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