{"id":1191056,"date":"2023-08-25T11:49:29","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T11:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2023\/08\/maine-electricity-ballot-initiative-cmp-versant-pine-tree-power-consulting\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T11:49:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T11:49:29","slug":"democratic-consultants-are-fighting-to-keep-maines-electric-bills-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/08\/25\/democratic-consultants-are-fighting-to-keep-maines-electric-bills-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Consultants Are Fighting to Keep Maine\u2019s Electric Bills High"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

In November, Mainers will decide whether they want to put two price-gouging private power companies out of business and take control of the state\u2019s electric grid. So-called progressive consultants are being paid to oppose the measure.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n Central Maine Power (CMP) power lines in Lewiston, Maine. (Wikimedia Commons)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

Bruce Rosga received a letter from his power company in May saying he needed to pay nearly $5,000 or his electricity would be cut off. A disabled, diabetic veteran, Rosga hadn\u2019t paid his electric bill for some years, and he couldn\u2019t afford to pay the latest bill, either. A few weeks later, the company turned off his power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost all my food, lost all my insulin,\u201d he said. \u201cI had to throw it all out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosga, who lives in Dexter, a small town in central Maine, is one of tens of thousands of Maine residents who received disconnection notices this spring after they failed to keep up with bills being sent by the state\u2019s highly profitable, foreign-owned electric utility companies, Central Maine Power (CMP) and Versant Power.<\/p>\n

In November, Mainers will decide whether they want to put those power companies out of business and take control of the state\u2019s electric grid, when they vote on a ballot initiative to create a nonprofit power company that would buy and operate the utilities\u2019 transmission lines and facilities.<\/p>\n

Supporters say that it\u2019s the most important climate election in the United States this year, and a win could inspire activists elsewhere to try to take control of their own utilities in order to limit their states\u2019 dependence on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

CMP and Versant\u2019s parent companies are furiously fighting the proposed state takeover. They have donated $27 million so far to oppose the initiative, using front groups to blanket the state with negative ads to protect their lucrative monopolies \u2014 delivering hefty paydays to Democratic campaign consultants in Washington and beyond.<\/p>\n

The grassroots campaign to pass the public power plan, Pine Tree Power, doesn\u2019t have that kind of money, but its small team believes that it has a fighting chance to give Mainers control over their state\u2019s power grid.<\/p>\n

The campaign knows that CMP and Versant are extremely unpopular<\/a>. Electric rates have spiked<\/a> in Maine over the past few years and keep going up<\/a>, while outages are frequent<\/a>. This spring, CMP and Versant planned to send out<\/a> disconnection notices to more than ninety-four thousand<\/a> households \u2014 or 13 percent of Maine\u2019s residential customers \u2014 amid the ballot measure campaign to buy out the utilities.<\/p>\n

While Pine Tree Power recently received an endorsement<\/a> from progressive senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, the fight over the initiative is not a typical red-versus-blue battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe split [among voters] tends to be less on a partisan line than whether the system is working for them, or whether folks can pay their power bills,\u201d said Pine Tree Power\u2019s deputy campaign manager Lucy Hochschartner, who leads the campaign\u2019s field program. \u201cThe second is whether a voter has a sense of possibility, about whether we can change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosga, for example, said he voted for Donald Trump and describes himself as a \u201cconstitutional American first patriot.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other side, Democratic and progressive consultants are making huge sums working for the power companies\u2019 front groups \u2014 helping them tell Mainers that it would be too expensive and complicated to buy out the utilities, which reported $188 million in profits last year.<\/p>\n