Maine Creation of Pine Tree Power Company Measure (2021)

Maine Creation of Pine Tree Power Company Measure
Election date November 2, 2021
Topic Energy
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin State legislature

The Maine Creation of Pine Tree Power Company Measure was not on the ballot in Maine as a legislatively referred state statute on November 2, 2021.

The ballot measure would have created a consumer-owned electric transmission and distribution utility called the Pine Tree Power Company.

The Maine House of Representatives approved legislation for the ballot measure on June 30. On July 13, 2021, Gov. Janet Mills (D) vetoed the legislation.

Text of measure

Full text

The full text of the ballot measure is available here.

Support

Our Power led the campaign in support of the ballot measure.

Supporters

Officials

• State Sen. Richard Bennett (R)
• State Rep. Seth Berry (D)
• State Rep. Nathan Carlow (R)
• State Rep. Nicole Grohoski (D)

Arguments

• State Rep. Nathan Carlow (R-16): "Pine Tree Power, a Maine consumer owned utility working only for the Maine people, not Spain, not Calgary, and not profit-seeking investors in other parts of the world."
• State Rep. Seth Berry (D-55): "Consumer owned utilities are lower cost, locally accountable, and twice as reliable. Of the 12 top rated utilities in the country, 11 are consumer owned utilities. ... Every month the 800,000 captive customers of CMP and Versant pay monopoly rent for the use of a monopoly grid. This will no longer be a rental payment, but a mortgage payment. We will save money, invest in and improve our grid, and build our own equity."
• State Rep. Nicole Grohoski (D-132): "Instead of investing that money into grid upgrades, our major utilities send it abroad as profits to their shareholders."
• State Sen. Richard Bennett (R-19): "Right now, foreign governments and foreign corporations own Maine’s major utility monopolies. This ownership model has been a disaster, leaving Maine with the most outages, the longest outages, the worst customer service, and among the highest rates in the country. Working together, we can do better and establish Pine Tree Power."
• Sharon Staz, former general manager of Kennebunk Light and Power District (1998-2015): "Consumer-owned utilities like the proposed Pine Tree Power Company are a tried-and-true way to deliver locally-controlled, reliable power at a lower cost to utility customers."
• Maulian Dana, tribal ambassador for the Penobscot Nation: "We are at a critical juncture. Honoring the historic stewardship practices of the Penobscot people and protecting our resources so future generations may thrive has never been more imperative. Yet the model of electricity distribution managed by distant boardrooms for the benefit of shareholders works at cross purposes to our needs. These profit-driven electric utilities are failing Maine now and will likely become an even bigger problem in the future. In the face of the climate crisis, society needs to increasingly rely on clean electricity to take the place of fossil fuels and power, heat and light our homes, businesses, factories and vehicles. CMP and Versant have inhibited renewable energy expansion."

Opposition

Opponents

Corporations

• Central Maine Power Company
• Versant Power

Arguments

• Judy Long, communications manager for Versant Power: "Maine is working hard to make progress on renewable energy goals and mitigation of climate change, and Versant Power strives to be a trusted partner in those efforts. A government power takeover will threaten our state’s ability to do the work our citizens demand to keep pace with an evolving energy landscape."
• Catharine Hartnett, spokesperson for Central Maine Power: "Mainers must fully understand that the purchase price for CMP assets will be passed on by the state to customers who will foot the bill for the government takeover through higher electricity bills to offset the costs of purchasing the company."
• David Flanagan, executive chairman of Central Maine Power: “All Mainers deserve reliable power service at reasonable rates. For more than 120 years that has been our mission—now on behalf of 646,000 customers. Our company was founded by Mainers and employs more than 990 people in the state—from lineworkers to engineers to finance experts—and each of us is committed to doing what we can to ensure safe and reliable service to our neighbors and communities. Those of us who have deep experience running a utility know that this bill – to seize private assets and politicize the management of electric service—is a bad proposition for Mainers.”
• John Flynn, president of Versant Power: "The idea that the government may force the divestiture of Maine’s two privately owned transmission and distribution utilities is perhaps the single largest variable in terms of disruption to that process. To achieve our climate and grid modernization efforts, we need everyone working together. We have neither the time nor the money to waste on polarizing fights."
• Nick Murray, political analyst for the Maine Policy Institute: "Mainers need a more competitive market for energy, not less. An immense transfer of assets to a quasi-public entity, whose leadership is under no obligation to understand or embody the economics or science of reliable energy transmission, presents a crisis of accountability."

Path to the ballot

In Maine, a legislatively referred state statute requires a simple majority vote in both chambers of the Maine State Legislature and the governor's signature.

State Rep. Seth Berry (D-55) introduced the ballot measure as Legislative Document 1708 (LD 1708) on May 13, 2021.

The Maine House of Representatives approved LD 1708 on June 17, 2021, but the Maine State Senate rejected LD 1708 in a vote of 17 to 18 on June 18. The House voted 77-68 to approve an amended version of the bill on June 30. The Senate took up the revised legislation on June 30, passing LD 1708 in an 18 to 14 vote.

On July 13, 2021, Gov. Janet Mills (D) vetoed LD 1708.

See also

2021 measures

• 2021 ballot measures
• Energy on the ballot

Maine

• Maine ballot measures
• Maine ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls