On offer at a local ice cream stand is a mystery bag of “mistakes.” You know what you are going to pay, but not what you are going to get. It might be moose tracks or two scoops of the abomination that is bubblegum.

The Pine Tree Power proposal is its own kind of mystery bag, but the biggest mystery of all is the cost. Taking over Maine’s power grid from Versant and CMP will cost billions. How many depends on who you ask: $6 billion, $10 billion, $13 billion or even $15 billion has been suggested. Even the most informed analysts cannot predict with certainty what ultimately will be settled in the courts. That process very likely will take years and come with its own costs. Meanwhile, the infrastructure upgrades the takeover aims to speed will instead languish.

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