Maine regulators announced Wednesday they will draft rules that prohibit utilities from billing ratepayers for spending on advertising, lobbying and political expenses and require spending disclosures to the state.
The Public Utilities Commission voted 3-0 to launch a rule-making process seeking public comment on regulations called for in state legislation enacted last year.
Workers for Northern Clearing pound stakes to mark land on an existing Central Maine Power power line corridor, that has been recently widened to make way for new utility poles, in 2021, near Bingham. Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press, file
The legislation bars utilities from passing on to ratepayers expenses for contributions or gifts to political candidates, political parties, and political or legislative committees; to a trade association, chamber of commerce or public charity; for lobbying or grassroots lobbying; or for educational expenses, unless approved by the PUC as serving a public interest.
Advertisement
Sen. Mike Tipping, D-Penobscot, introduced the legislation, telling fellow lawmakers he objected to YouTube advertising by Central Maine Power and “glossy” fliers mailed by Versant Power. “Ultimately, we’re the ones paying for these ads through our power bills,” he said.
Rebecca Schultz, senior advocate for climate and clean energy at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, cited spending to support a 2021 ballot measure that ultimately rejected the New England Clean Energy Connect hydropower transmission line. Supporters spent about $24 million and NextEra, owner of a New Hampshire nuclear plant that stood to lose millions of dollars from the competing transmission line, spent $20 million. It wasn’t clear how large of a donation NextEra had made until two years after the election.
Opponents of the ballot measure – political action committees associated with Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power, and Hydro-Quebec – spent about $63 million. The companies stand to earn billions of dollars when the line is built. Information was reported about those lobbying costs in 2023, a year after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that CMP had a valid lease for the public land. And some of the costs were estimates at the time.
Schultz told lawmakers last year that companies with a “monopoly franchise with guaranteed returns in exchange for providing an essential service to Maine people should not be spending that kind of money to influence the outcome of our elections.”
Tipping said First Amendment protections for speech make it difficult to ban advertising by utilities.
Advertisement
And he cautioned about “some hurdles preventing a dollar-for-dollar reduction in rate increases based on money spent on advertising.”
“What we can do – far more quickly and easily – is increase transparency of how these utilities are spending money to influence Mainers and provide more information to the PUC, to (the Legislature) … and to the public about their advertising practices,” Tipping said.
Maine’s current rules governing political and advertising by utilities were last updated substantively in 1987, Schultz said. Political action committees have since proliferated and Maine’s two investor-owned utilities have gone through “various acquisitions and reorganizations” establishing “complex structures of multinational corporate ownership,” she said.
CMP, which did not support or oppose the legislation, told lawmakers last year that information about contributions by Avangrid to political action committees is publicly available. CMP also said it reports regularly to the state Ethics Commission. And it said the utility’s political and charitable contributions and goodwill advertising spending are paid for by shareholders, not ratepayers.
Versant told lawmakers that it spends less than $1 a ratepayer to support videos, audio, exhibits, bill inserts, brochures and other printed material to communicate information such as energy conservation and public safety messages.
Advertisement
Advertising that “may be considered promotional, political or institutional” and community spending or charitable giving is paid for by Versant’s shareholders, it said.
Versant suggested to the PUC that it approve in advance educational work that includes bill inserts, mailers and other communications. It said utilities increasingly need to inform customers about energy services, rates and other details.
CMP urged regulators to not preclude utility activities that are prudent – those that allow a utility to be reimbursed by ratepayers for various costs – and that align with state policy goals.
Workers clean up a Chemical spill at Brunswick Executive Airport on August 19. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
This editorial board published a preliminary response to the spill of toxic firefighting foam concentrate in Brunswick on Aug. 25 (“Our View: Response to Brunswick foam spill a multifaceted failure”). At that time, there were more questions than there were answers.
Even then, however, the scope and severity of the damage to our state was clear. This past week, some of our questions were answered. And those answers were very unsettling.
Staying on the story, the Press Herald’s Penelope Overton reported galling context Thursday. The fire suppression system in question at Brunswick Executive Airport was deemed “deficient” in the months before the leak.
Advertisement
Worse than that, the inspector’s report declared the potential for “accidental foam discharge” as – and this is a big word – “tremendous.”
Nothing was done to mitigate this formally established risk; no sprinkler repair person was called. Why? The airport’s owner, Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, reportedly couldn’t find anybody to do it. The account given is extremely murky and maddening.
The executive director of the authority, Kristine Logan, put it this way. “We went back and forth with them until September,” Logan said of the company that conducted the inspection. “So then, when we couldn’t get them back in, we started calling around to other places to say ‘Hey, would you guys come out and do that?’ But nobody wants to do anything with PFAS anymore.”
Nobody wants to do anything with PFAS anymore.
Hey, guess what? PFAS – the toxic forever chemicals contained in some life-saving and some decidedly less life-saving products – are a hard, painful fact of life where we live. The damage wrought by sludge contamination has already ruined many lives and livelihoods in Maine. The efforts to contain and filter out these disease-causing chemicals are worthwhile, if very arduous and uncertain. They fall to the state, to our municipal bodies and to private business and individuals.
Advertisement
If it really was the case that there are no willing or able professionals on offer to the authority, some official intervention must be explored. Certainly, inspection and maintenance of this significance – with these harrowing downsides, where neglected or avoided – is not optional. It is not something that can fall foul of the whims of the market.
Now, the Brunswick story appears to be wending its way into an unseemly legal battle between the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority and the business that conducted the inspection – the business that warned Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority that “next steps,” steps to mitigate the risk, would necessarily run to tens of thousands of dollars.
No kidding. That’s what dealing with these substances costs. As we wrote in this space back in June, we’ve got to wrap our heads around the rising costs of solving this problem – they are only going to rise.
Attention to the crisis of PFAS contamination at the state level has been well above average; Maine has invested more than $100 million in its response to PFAS in the past two years and spent about $15 million to help those materially affected. Even then, we are only getting started down this extremely long and difficult road.
Private enterprise is likely to pay as much attention to the crisis as laws, rules and effective enforcement commands it to. If the Brunswick fiasco is anything to go by, the attitude toward the responsible management of material that poses an inordinate threat to public health if irresponsibly managed is … lacking, if not cavalier. It is a sorry state of affairs when it takes a catastrophe like this one to sharpen the focus of our regulatory bodies and our codes. Our treasured local environment is not a testing ground. We know more than enough about what needs to be done and insisted on when it comes to curtailing toxic chemical contamination.
Advertisement
Knowing what we know, prevention is non-negotiable. Accountability and liability need to be crystal clear; the buck has to stop somewhere. And the consequences, where it doesn’t stop, need to be grave enough to be effective.
ORONO, Maine (AP) — Derek Robertson threw four touchdown passes, including a 94-yarder to Josh Derry, and Monmouth flew past Maine 51-22 on Saturday for the Hawks’ first win of the season.
Robertson had 390 yards on 22-of-36 passing. He threw two touchdowns to Derry, and one each to Jack Neri and Marcus Middleton.
Advertisement
Derry had 227 yards on seven receptions for an average of 32.4 yards per catch.
Monmouth scored 20 points in the first quarter and led 27-8 at halftime. The Hawks extended their lead to 41-13 when Rodney Nelson scored on a 24-yard run with 3 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter.
After Maine got within 41-20 early in the fourth, the Hawks took possession at their own 6-yard line following a misplay on the kickoff. On first down, Derry took off down the left side, hauled in a pass from Robertson and outran his defender for a 94-yard touchdown.
Monmouth outgained Maine 632-286 in total yards. Nelson led the Hawks (1-2, 1-0 Coastal Athletic Association) on the ground with 91 yards among their total of 242.
Carter Peevy completed 16 of 26 passes for 159 yards for the Black Bears (1-2, 0-1).
Advertisement
___ Get alerts on the latest AP Top 25 poll throughout the season. Sign up here AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
A man convicted of assaulting a child tried to flee a courthouse in Maine but two jurors and a detective quickly foiled the escape attempt.
Nicholas Carter, 31, on Wednesday ran out of the courthouse in Skowhegan while handcuffed. He had been found guilty of aggravated assault against a 14-month-old child, according to the Portland Press Herald.
A series of videos shows Carter racing down a hallway in the courthouse while still in handcuffs and dodging an individual who attempted to block him. He can then be seen fleeing the courthouse, chased by several other individuals.
Additional video shows Carter running across a parking lot and eventually appearing to trip and fall in a yard where two jurors and a detective apprehend him.
Advertisement
Carter had been found guilty after a three-day trial at the Somerset County Superior Courthouse.
A sentencing hearing for the aggravated assault conviction is expected in the coming weeks.
