Maine to vote on whether to make electric power public - The Hill
Maine to vote on whether to make electric power public | The Hill
| Voters in Maine will decide next week whether to give the ownership of electric power to the public. |
| © AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty |
| The ballot amendment up for a vote next week would establish “a new power company governed by an elected board to acquire and operate existing for-profit electricity transmission and distribution facilities in Maine.”
Supporters say this would increase control that the people have over something with a deep impact on their lives and maintain it could reduce outages. Opponents, meanwhile, say it would be too expensive.
Currently, Maine leads the nation in power outage frequency per customer. Two investor-owned utilities supply electricity to 97 percent of residents in the state.
Lucy Hochschartner, a spokesperson for the campaign in favor of the amendment, said that while the effort was fueled by state-specific frustrations, Mainers “are really deciding on whether to move to a fundamentally different kind of utility.”
The politics:
Gov. Janet Mills (D) opposes the measure Maine’s two senators, Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R), have not weighed in Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), from neighboring Vermont, backs the measure Read more in a full report at TheHill.com. |
| Welcome to The Hill’s Energy & Environment newsletter, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains.|
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: electricity
Electricity is a secondary energy source: it is generated through the conversion of primary energy sources such as natural gas, coal, solar, hydropower, and wind. Electricity’s versatility is not cost-free: a substantial amount of energy is lost in its generation and the cost of storage is high, compared with fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. The economics of battery technology hold the key to expanded use of renewable sources to generate electricity.