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G. Melvin Hovey is a retired Maine Public Service Company executive.

Maine and New Brunswick are not at war with one another. We are friends and neighbors. And until the Trump administration initiated a trade war with Canada, we had no reason to fear a disruption in our electricity supply from New Brunswick. Yet here we are.

The New Brunswick provincial government is seriously considering shutting off the flow of electricity from New Brunswick into northern Maine. Specifically, Canadian officials said they could not rule out this possibility as retaliation for the U.S. imposing tariffs on imports from Canada. This would have a devastating impact on 58,000 Maine consumers who live and work in communities near the Canadian border and depend on New Brunswick to keep their lights on.

These Mainers have done nothing to deserve this. They simply live and work near the Canadian border.

I spent 37 years working for Maine Public Service Company (now part of Versant Power), the last 11 years as its president. We worked hard to keep the lights on in Aroostook County and keep electricity prices affordable. Part of our strategy was developing a mutually beneficial partnership with the Province of New Brunswick to share resources for the benefit of both New Brunswick and Aroostook County consumers.

They would provide us with their surplus electricity when it was cheaper for them to generate than for us to do so. They would also transmit through New Brunswick to Aroostook County our share of electricity from generators we owned in southern Maine and New Hampshire, including Maine Yankee, Wyman 4 and Seabrook. As a result, our need for generating capacity located inside Aroostook County was limited. And we were always ready to supply them with any surplus electricity from our generators, should they ever need it.

Over time, we built up a high level of mutual trust that benefited electricity consumers on both sides of the international boundary. Because of this relationship, Aroostook County was never electrically connected to the rest of Maine; instead, we were connected to New Brunswick. As a result, Aroostook County depends heavily on electricity imported from New Brunswick.

The tariffs imposed by our own federal government risk harming our close working relationship with New Brunswick and, more significantly, the ability to keep the lights on in Aroostook County. In the event New Brunswick stops the flow of electricity into Maine, there is not enough generating capacity in Northern Maine to keep all the lights on; preserve all our food; keep all our heating systems energized; keep our stores open; keep our businesses running; and keep our citizens employed. It may be spring, but it’s still cold in Northern Maine.

As a lifelong Republican, I’m stunned that a Republican administration would initiate federal intervention in local markets. I never thought I would see the day when a Republican president would impose tariffs (taxes) to the detriment of hard-working, innocent Maine consumers. But things have changed.

It boggles the mind that we, as a nation, would turn on our most trusted ally. In border states across the country, we are driving a stake through local economies and even families. Border towns often behave as one large community. Frequently people live on one side of the border and work on the other. Families extend across the border.

In the case of Aroostook County and the Province of New Brunswick, our electric utilities share resources to the benefit of all the ratepayers of both utilities. If the tariffs imposed by Washington lead to New Brunswick retaliating by cutting off electricity to Maine, our northern residents will pay the price of this tariff war.

I urge all my friends and former colleagues to speak up and demand that our congressional delegation use all available resources to stop the president from putting innocent Maine consumers in the middle of his political battle with Ottawa and thereby risk plunging Aroostook County into darkness and a catastrophic black out.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner is facing calls to resign after he issued an order — which was quickly rescinded — that would have required Maine parents to register their newborns for Social Security numbers at a federal office rather than the hospital.

Newly unearthed emails show that the March 5 decision was made as political payback to Maine’s Governor Janet Mills, who has defied the Trump administration’s push to deny federal funding to the state over transgender athletes.

In the email addressed to the agency’s staff, acting commissioner Leland Dudek, said, “no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child.” Staff members warned that terminating the contracts would result in improper payments and the potential for identity theft.

Dudek’s order initially drew widespread condemnation from medical organizations and public officials, who described it as unnecessary and punitive. The practice of allowing parents to register a newborn for a Social Security number at a hospital or other birthing site, called the Enumeration at Birth program, has been common for decades.

Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, one of two House members from Maine, said Dudek should resign immediately. She characterized Dudek’s actions as retaliation for Mills publicly opposing President Donald Trump.

“If a federal agency can be turned into a political hit squad at the whim of an acting appointee, what checks remain on executive power? Commissioner Dudek’s vindictive actions against Maine represent a fundamental betrayal of public trust that disqualifies him from public service,” Pingree said.

Mills said Wednesday that Social Security is being subjected to “rushed and reckless cuts” and needs leadership that treats it like a public trust. She said that is especially important in Maine, which has a high number of recipients.

“Social Security is not a scheme, as some have said, it’s a covenant between our government and its people. The Social Security Administration’s leadership must act in a manner that reflects this solemn obligation,” Mills said.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to Dudek on Tuesday, calling for his immediate resignation and a request that he sit for an interview with the committee.

“The American people deserve answers about your activities and communications in the time between President Trump’s February 21, 2025, public threat to Governor Mills and your February 27, 2025, order to cancel the enumeration at birth and electronic death registration contracts with the state of Maine, and about your knowledge that cancelling these contracts would lead to increased waste, fraud, and abuse,” Connolly said in his letter.

Connolly, in a letter on Tuesday, said Democrats on the House oversight committee obtained internal emails from the Social Security Administration that he says shows Dudek cancelled the contracts to retaliate politically against Maine.

A representative from the Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Dudek on a March 18th call with reporters to preview the agency’s tighter identity-proofing measures, initially said the cancellation of the Maine contract happened “because I screwed up,” adding that he believed that the contract looked strange. “I made the wrong move there. I should always ask my staff for guidance first, before I cancel something. I’m new at this job.”

He added, “Well, I was upset at the governor’s treatment, and I indicated in email as such, but the actual fact of the matter was it looked like a strange contract.”

“I’m not interested in political retaliation. I’m interested in serving the public.”

Maine has been the subject of federal investigations since Gov. Mills sparked the ire of Trump at a meeting of governors at the White House in February. During the meeting, Trump threatened to pull federal funding from Maine if the state does not comply with his executive order barring transgender athletes from sports.

Mills responded: “We’ll see you in court.”

The Trump administration then opened investigations into whether Maine violated the Title IX antidiscrimination law by allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls’ sports. The Education Department issued a final warning on Monday that the state could face Justice Department enforcement soon if it doesn’t come into compliance soon.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins also said Wednesday that the department is pausing federal funds for some Maine educational programs because of Title IX noncompliance.

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Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine.

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