Organizers of the ballot initiative hope to improve service and speed up the shift to clean energy by taking profits out of the utility sector.
Many people, and not just climate advocates, have wished they could make their utility company disappear. On November 7, the people of Maine may actually do that.
A ballot initiative will offer voters an unprecedented chance to revoke the license to operate held by the state’s two for-profit, investor-owned utilities. If this happens, the assets would transfer to Pine Tree Power, a new nonprofit utility that would be owned by all Mainers.
Advocates of the change say enough is enough: Maine’s monopoly utilities are among the least popular in the nation, and changing the system could improve now-unreliable service and lower costs by stripping the profit motive away from electricity provision. In the last few years, a shockingly high percentage of Mainers have received erroneous utility bills, sometimes with devastating consequences for families. Now’s their chance to flip the power dynamic.
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