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Solar_Saves t1_jcah9bm wrote

Reply to comment by Supabee78 in Maine Affordable Energy is CMP by [deleted]

How much did it cost to purchase the assets that made up the co-op? Or was the co-op created to install and service the electricity delivery hardware from the get go?

Did the co-op also produce the electricity? CMP doesn’t produce the electricity so there would be no savings on the electricity itself. Nor do we know if there would be any savings…

It would most likely take several years and millions of dollars spent (paid to lawyers, not Maine’s citizens) to make the purchase. And since they are going to farm out the running of the resultant quasi-governmental entity to some currently unknown bidder, there are no guarantees that customer service and/or servicing their grid assets will remain the same or improve or if there would ever be profits!

To succeed this project should state

  1. who will run it,
  2. how they will improve the customer service experience,
  3. what profits, if any, should the State of Maine expect?

Otherwise this issue is too open ended to approve.

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Supabee78 t1_jcal0li wrote

I am not going to explain the history or how to when it comes to power co-ops. Blue ridge electric didn’t produce power but maintained the lines and delivered. Google is your friend. Maine already has some power co-ops.

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Solar_Saves t1_jcapgrt wrote

But this over $15 billion buyout is nothing like any single SC co-op has ever done. The fees alone for this buyout would probably dwarf the revenue of most of SC’s co-ops. Then there is securing the $15 billion of securities to pay for it, and right now the cost of borrowing is up. If Revenue Bonds are used, any profits would be payments for the bonds, not otherwise available for the state of Maine’s coffers until bonds get paid off.

There are no guarantees of anything improving, the who, what, why and when of the purchase and any improvements aren’t known.

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Beginning-Worry6507 t1_jcgrq2x wrote

You can find the full text of the ballot measure here.

To answer questions not covered, you can talk to residents who live in Maine communities who already have publicly owned electricity.

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