A new utility pole next to a damaged pole near Brian Johnston's home in Harpswell, Maine. Ellen McCurley was settling into a calm new life, savoring sunsets from the porch of a modest riverfront home with her dogs Sadie and Maisie, when a notice from the electric company turned it all upside down.It was a nearly $1,000 bill from Central Maine Power, more than quadruple what she paid the month before. And the bills kept soaring, topping out at $1,200 by the end of March.
of consumers frustrated with power companies they feel are unaccountable to ratepayers, and that have taken center stage in disasters such as this summer’s devastating wildfires in Maui.in the country — are joining a campaign to replace the state’s investor-owned electricity companies with a nonprofit utility.
The proposal in Maine would replace Central Maine Power and Versant with a nonprofit run by a board of seven elected members and six more people they select. Pine Tree Power would take control of the state’s power grid, buying out the existing utilities. It would be a messy and litigious process, and there is heated dispute over the price tag, with the exiting power companies warning ratepayers it will cost more than $13 billion but other analysts saying it would be far less.