Statement after Gov. Mills announced that she would veto L.D. 1708

July 13, 2021
Contact: Willy Ritch 207-841-8400 | [email protected]

Governor Mills listened to both sides, read the bill carefully, and came to the same conclusion that many of us have come to—the proposal to seize CMP and Versant Power to create a government-run electric utility raises a lot of questions that don’t have any good answers.

The Governor is not alone in seeing the fundamental flaws in this proposal. Labor unions, the business community, mayors from across the state, and former Public Utilities Commissioners all spoke out against this bill.

The supporters of government power tried to cover up the flaws in their bill with late-night and last-minute amendments. But they couldn’t hide the fact that this proposal is simply a bad idea. Pine Tree Power would start out with $13 billion in debt to Wall Street banks that Mainers would spend decades paying off through our electric bills. It would be run by a board of elected officials who would bring politics to our electric grid. And the bureaucratic and legal fight that would come from trying to seize these two privately-owned companies would last decades, cost the state millions of dollars, and delay the investments necessary to modernize our grid and meet our clean energy goals.