8/18/2023 0 Comments 2020 my country unlimited money![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() They’ve already outspent the Our Power coalition by 17 to 1, pouring over $18 million so far into turning public opinion against the buyout. The for-profit power companies in Maine, however, are not going to leave behind their ability to squeeze profits out of Maine residents without a fight. ![]() Rates today are lower than any neighboring community still captive to for-profit power companies, and almost all power lines in the city have been buried so when power goes out in the area from Florida’s frequent severe storms, the lights in Winter Park stay on. Similarly, residents of Winter Park, Florida voted to buy out their local problem-plagued for-profit power company in 2005. Reliably and electricity costs today are consistently better than the nearby Con Edison, which is run for profit. When the New York Legislature created the nonprofit, citizen-owned Long Island Power Authority in 1998 and put it into operation, serving the needs of over a million people, rates dropped by 20 percent across the board. In fact, investor-owned utility delivery charges are 49% higher for residential users than consumer-owned utility delivery charges in Maine for 2021.” As Our Power notes: “Ratepayers pay less, on average, to consumer-owned utilities than to CMP or Versant. First, they don’t have to skim profits off the top to pay dividends to investors, and, second, their executives’ first imperative is serving their customers rather than squeezing out as much profit as possible.Īs if to make the point, squeezing out profits at the expense of utility customers is exactly what Versant and CMP appear to be doing. Publicly-owned utilities consistently deliver greater reliability at a lower cost than for-profit operations for two simple reasons. The simple reality is that as long as its legal for corporations to drop unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns, citizens and good-government groups will almost always be blown out of the water.Ī citizen activist group called Our Power has succeeded in putting on the ballot a statewide initiative that would buy up the two utilities and roll their assets and operations into Pine Tree Power, a new nonprofit utility that will be owned by and operated for the benefit of the state of Maine and its citizens. Ninety-seven percent of the electric power in Maine is provided by two for-profit corporations, Versant and Central Maine Power (CMP).Īnd the profits extracted from Mainers by running these companies doesn’t stay in the state or even in the US: Versant is owned by a Enmax, a company based in Calgary, Canada CMP’s parent company is owned by Iberdrola SA, a Spanish corporation whose largest shareholder is the Qatar Investment Authority. So far, no members of Congress or the administration have picked up on my suggestion, but the people in Maine have a similar idea and they’re moving forward with it. They could then be run for the public interest, prevented from continuing to fund climate change denial, and end their support of toxic Republican politicians. Back in 2022, I suggested that our federal government should spend about one-third of the cost of the Trump Tax Cuts to buy the three largest oil companies in this country. ![]()
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