Beyond Labels

We decided to discuss at our next (16 October) meeting the possibe pros and cons of Pine Tree Power, the proposed consumer-owned electric utility that will be the subject of a referendum question on the Maine ballot in November.

When we chose this topic at the end of yesrerday’s meeting, some of us felt that the public discussion so far about Pine Tree Power has been remarkably fact-free and that we need to do some research ahead of time to try try find some relevant facts.

I suggest some of the relevant questions about this issue include, for example, the following (in no particular order):

How are Versant Power and Central Maine Power currently financed? Would the component of the cost of elecricity to consumers.attributable to financing go up, go down, or stay the same if Pine Tree Power acquires their assets?

Some advertisements opposing Pine Tree Power assert that the take-over would “cost Mainers” something over $13 billion. What’s the basis for that claim? How would the cost of acquiring the assets of Versant/CMP actually be determined? What “cost” does the $13 billion figure represent? Who are the “Mainers” who will bear the acquisition cost, whatever it ends up being?

Would Pine Tree Power be a “consumer-owned utility”? If so, in what sense? If not, why not?

What has been the experience with consumer-owned electric utilities in Maine and elsewhere in the US? Has service and/or reliabilty improved? Have rates gone up or down compared to nearby inverstor-owned utilities with similar (in size and in any other relevant ways) customer bases and the condition of their infrastructure?

Will the economic incentives and advantages (e.g. bargaining power in purchasing electricity or other goods and services) or disadvantages be different for Pine Tree Power as a consumer-owned electric utility than they are for Versant/CMP as investor-owned utilities? If so, how?

How will Pine Tree Power be managed? Who would choose its directors and how? How much control will consumers have over Pine Tree Power policies (e.g., energy souces, choice of operator, system upgrades, etc.)? How much control do consumers now have over similar policies of Versant/CMP? Would more consumer control of such policies be a good thing or a bad thing? Why?

Will the role of the Public Utilites Commission change if Pine Tree Power takes over Versant/CMP? If so, how?

Will the role of the state (i.e., the legislative and executive branches) change with respect to the operation of the electric grid if Pine Tree Power takes over Versant/CMP? If so, how?

Aside from the issues raised above, is there any independent principled reason to prefer an investor-owned or a consumer-owned electric utility? If so, what principle and what option would it support?

Who is backing the advertising campaigns supporting or opposing Pine Tree Power? Which politicians are backing or opposing Pine Tree Power? Why do they say they’re taking that position? What are their likely (publicly) unstated reasons, if any, for taking that position?

if, at the beginning of the discussion, you support or oppose Pine Tree Power, why? If you change your mind at the end of the discussion, why? If not, is there anything that might cause you to change your mind? If so, what?

Here’s a link to the Pine Tree power web site (https://ourpowermaine.org/faq/) that adresses some of these issues from Pine Tree Power’s perspective. I’ll look for something similar from the perspective of Versant/CMP.