Who Actually Benefits From Your Electric Bill?
Bar Harbor Farm hosts Pine Tree Power presentation
BAR HARBOR––On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, one of a rare few lately in Bar Harbor this June, approximately 80 people showed up at the Bar Harbor Farm for a presentation by Pine Tree Power on the benefits of a consumer owned electric utility company. Those in attendance were not only from Bar Harbor or MDI, but some were also from as far away as Lincolnville.
Presenters included Maine State Senator Nicole Grohoski and Al Cleveland, campaign manager for Our Power Maine
Rose Avenia and Glenon Friedmann, co-founders of the farm, spoke to the attentive crowd from their dais of stacked pallets in front of the audience who was seated on crate-supported planks and chairs overlooking the farm.
While giving a short history on her involvement with the farm, Avenia said that she first got interested in a ratepayer-owned utility when she started to hear about neighbors trying to switch to solar power for all or a portion of their electricity usage being deterred from doing so. According to many homeowners, they were being impeded from installing solar by Versant Power by being asked to pay exorbitant fees to connect to Versant’s grid.
Gary Friedmann then spoke about how approximately eight years ago, he and some other community members formed A Climate to Thrive. Friedmann said the goal of A Climate to Thrive is to make Mount Desert Island energy independent by 2030.
Friedmann went on to say that they know that the goal of A Climate to Thrive is a technologically and financially viable goal, but since Versant has taken over our electrical utility services, they are not connecting solar projects.
“They are downright refusing to interconnect solar projects of all sizes,” Friedmann said.
A legislative bill was passed in 2021 with bipartisan support in both houses to buy out the electricity providers but was vetoed by Governor Janet Mills even though according to one of her press releases, she has “taken bold action to fight climate change and to advance renewable energy opportunities.”
Since the veto, a citizen’s initiative has been able to get a question on the November ballet to see if Maine voters truly support a consumer-owned utility company.
Grohoski said, “The really important thing about today is the level of community interest shown by people who showed up on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.”
According to Grohoski, Versant Power has the worst reliability in the entire nation, meaning that there are a greater number of outages and the outages last for a longer period of time. Versant is also worse than Central Maine Power (CMP) and our previous supplier, Emera, at connecting to the solar grid.
“There is no profit for electric utility suppliers in solar,” Friedmann had said earlier.
Grohoski said that Maine rates are already some of the highest in the nation. On top of that, those rates will be going up (for an average size home) another $5 on July 1 and then another $5 on January 1.
According to the Pine Tree Power website, Versant Power is owned by a parent company called Enmax, which is wholly owned by the City of Calgary, Canada. All Versant profit returns to the city of Calgary.
CMP is owned by Avangrid, which is owned by a Spanish multinational corporation, Iberdola, whose main shareholders are the governments of Qatar and Norway, and Blackrock, a large investment firm.
Between the two power companies they made a combined $187 million in profit last year with $82 million of that being for Versant, according to Grohoski. She then said, “Imagine if we were putting all of that money to work in our communities to have clean energy and to have electricity that people can trust.”
Referencing carbon neutrality and the changes that individuals will need to make to help achieve this goal, Grohoski said “that it’s very hard to ask the people in our community to make the changes that they need to make on their own properties, for their own lives, and for their livelihoods if they don’t trust that it will be okay, and with Versant as our utility, I don’t blame them for being nervous.”
Grohoski likened the purchase of CMP’s and Versant’s infrastructure to buying a house, rather than renting for your whole life. While you are still paying every month, you are building equity as an owner rather than sending the profits off for someone else’s benefit.
There was a question-and-answer session after the presentation and a man from Somesville held up a flyer that he had recently received in the mail. He asked about three statements made on the flyer which was sent out by Maine Affordable Energy and asked: who is Maine Affordable Energy; what is the $13.5 billion they are referencing; and what do they mean by government-controlled power?
Cleveland responded to two of the questions. She said, “Maine Affordable Energy is a front group for CMP. They are wholly funded by CMP’s parent company, Avangrid, who is pouring millions of dollars to get you that flyer.”
“They keep telling folks that there is going to be a $13.5 billion price tag. They paid a consultant to come make up that number, as you probably can expect,” she said.
The reality is, according to Cleveland, that if the ballot question passes on November 7, there is a really clear process written into the legislation for Maine to buy out the infrastructure (poles and wires) that CMP and Versant own. This process is expected to take 3-4 years and will not cost anywhere near $13.5 billion.
Cleveland said that they can accurately estimate the cost based on other recent buyouts, including when Versant recently bought out Emera. Cleveland stated that Versant paid 1.4 times the net book value of Emera’s infrastructure. The purchase will be made with municipal revenue bonds which will be paid back from user fees. Cleveland then said, “This, we know, that Pine Tree Power Company will save an average rate payer $367 a year starting day one.”
Grohoski answered the question about the term “government-controlled power.” She said that Pine Tree Power would not be controlled by the government of Maine but would be regulated by the Public Utilities Commission, just like any other utility company.
Mary Ann Handel, of Bar Harbor, then asked if Cleveland and Grohoski could give details about the process for getting Pine Tree Power up and running if the ballot question is passed in November.
Cleveland said, “Within a year, the next November, there will be an election for the board of directors that will make up the Pine Tree Power Company. That is step number one.” She said that once that board is elected, it will appoint additional board members who will serve as energy experts. These will be people who know how to run an energy company and who meet qualifications that are laid out in the legislation.
The board and company will then go through the process of hiring staff and acquiring the money necessary for the purchase of CMP’s and Versant’s infrastructure. Next will be another process, also structured in the legislation, for engaging in conversation to determine a purchase price of the utility companies’ infrastructure. If CMP and Versant reject the initial proposals for buyout, the process will go to the courts. If they cannot work out a purchase price in the lower courts, the final purchase price will be decided by the Maine Supreme Court.
If you have more questions you can click on the links embedded above or read the full ballot measure itself.
 | A guest post by
|
I’m bombarded with flyers from power companies Solar shares, solar panels and different suppliers offering various deals with various time limits. Then there are various tax incentives.
I can’t make head of tail of it. So I asked around. A few have panels, but everyone else is like me - bewildered. I asked a local official -all she could offer was “read the fine print”. Then many of us don’t pY much, in any tax - where’s our incentive?
Is there a person any where who could give info in person or zoom. Who to ask if you have questions? It’s chaotic
Good reporting!