Maine voters reject effort to create the first statewide public power company
Maine voters reject effort to create the first statewide public power company
A historic referendum asked voters in Maine if they wanted to replace their privately owned utilities with a publicly owned one.
The measure, called Question 3, prompted heated debate in the months leading up to the election. Central Maine Power and Versant Power, the state’s dominant utilities, poured more than $40 million into a campaign opposing the referendum, outspending Pine Tree Power advocates 34 to 1. Political groups funded by the utilities and their parent companies mailed flyers and aired ads on TV, radio, and social media, urging Mainers to reject the measure, which would have effectively put the two companies out of business.
poured more than $40 million into a campaign opposing the referendum, outspending Pine Tree Power advocates 34 to 1.
boy that sure sounds democratic and not just bourgeois power
business as usual in
the bastion of freedom™ and democracy
And that's while living literally one step away from one of the best state own power utility in the OECD, providing the cheapest electricity of the "western" world. Americans are a lost cause. 🤦
One of the power companies referenced here fighting the measure is actually wholly owned by the city of Calgary.
Calgary, Alberta
Yeah that tracks
On one hand I have an impulse to call the voters morons but it can't be right, this level of propaganda is ungodly. What exactly does a power company's propaganda even look like?
One of their arguments I believe was that it would actually be more expensive under public, because the cost of the buyout would be passed on to customers' bills. That probably resonated even though the cost of the buyout was overinflated by them.
cost of the buyout
if that was such a concern they should've just allotted 1 dollar to the buyout
good argument for expropriating capitalists without compensation and blowing their brains out if they complain
voters morons but it can't be right
This is the imperial core, you don't have to make apologies for bourgeois proletariats.
They put a large man in a hard hat and a flannel on TV and in a heavy Central Maine accent he said "Government run power is too expensive for us taxpayers"
The voters also killed a constitutional amendment to remove a provision that was ruled illegal in federal court 20 years ago and hasn't been enforced since.
Edit: They actually voted against two constitutional amendments to bring our laws in line with federal law
funny how it takes a plebiscite the company is allowed to campaign in to create a public utility, but selling off a public utility never comes with a plebiscite?
Maybe next time there shouldn't be a vote
All the old people were inundated with ads on their favorite radio and TV programs. Outspent 40-1 with our own money.
Democratic governor was against it.
We never had a chance.
Outspent 40-1 with our own money
I sure am glad we don't have unions. Wouldn't want my money going to anything political
Don't ask next time.
The state’s dominant utilities poured more than 40 million into a campaign opposing the referendum
I think this was probably the reason
30/70
Oof.
Bourgeois “democracy” at work. I hate corporations doing this shit.
“We gave you a choice between a good thing and a bad thing. We may have sunk a lot of resources into the bad thing, but the beautiful part about it is that we gave you a choice unlike those authoritarian countries.”
Fucking love democracy man
Reminds me of when patient ratios for nurses in I believe Vermont went to a ballot measure and after a massive ad campaign it barely failed. Not like the public really understands what it's like and what's cut when you're understaffed and the slick ads tell them that it'll make things worse so they believe it. Then you get national professional organizations celebrating the defeat because they're all ghouls and don't give a shit about the floor nurse burning out after running with an 8:1 in med surg or 24:1 at rehab where you have 20 minutes to allot each person, good luck actually giving people proper care.
there was a bill in California last year that would have required dialysis clinics to have a doctor/nurse/PA present during patient treatments, and they would have to get permission from the state's department of health before they could close clinics or reduce patient services, among other things like having to provide the state with a list of people who had more than 5% ownership interest in the clinic. Of course private health companies like DaVita spent more than $75 million buying ads that were just thinly-veiled threats like "hey you love your family members with kidney disease, right? It would be a shame if we just closed all these clinics..." and so of course the bill failed with almost 70% of people voting no.
idk how anyone can consider this country a democracy
Laughs in California's PG&E private monopoly
Burns down the state from not doing maintenance on power lines. Raises rates.
who are trying to raise rates another 20% while we're already paying the highest prices in the country
there's a bunch of california local public owned for electricity https://www.cmua.org/members
i'm pretty familiar with EBMUD and SMUD. Way cheaper electricity, cleaner, local better jobs compared to the poor neighboring souls still stuck on PG&E for electricity.
i remember SMUD tried to expand into yolo county back in like 2009? and it was copy/paste same from this article with PG&E spending the world to stop it, successfully. those idiot voters got their wish (or more charitably: got manufactured) and have been getting fleeced hard since.
STUPID FUCKIN LIBERTARIANS DO YOU WANT BARBARISM? THIS IS HOW YOU GET BARBARISM
The average libertarian thinks they want barbarism because they think they'd be sitting on a throne of skulls and have harem waifus chained up around them.
I mean yeah they definitely do. Socialism isn't going to give them child brides.
We're gonna try something similar in my county, sucks to see these referendums get crushed.
Similar attempts have been made in my State to oust the private company in control of of energy, that does nothing but raise rates and lobby against anyone installing solar panels. There's been some radio silence after the last round of attempts.
Duke energy sucks
When was the last time that anything remotely like this happened in clapistan?
Failed 70% to 30% btw
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/07/us/elections/results-maine.html (question 3)
As mentioned before this really did not have a chance.
This passed our legislature in 2021 but was vetoed by our Democrat governor Mills. That is why it became a referendum 2 years later.
Who will work for PTP?
If and when Pine Tree Power purchases the assets of CMP and Versant, the new nonprofit utility would have to hire an outside contractor (or contractors) to carry out the daily operations, routine maintenance and emergency response currently handled by employees of the two utilities.
In turn, that operations contractor will be required to hire back any of CMP’s and Versant’s unionized workers or other employees governed by contracts negotiated by the unions. The operator could also hire any other nonunionized or CMP or Versant employee except anyone who served on the two companies’ executive boards.
As an additional enticement, any returning workers would receive healthy retention bonuses of 8% and 6% during their first two years. Pine Tree Power and the new contractor must honor existing collective bargaining agreements and could not stop workers from striking or engaging in work slowdowns.
Those provisions haven’t won over union leaders at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents line workers and other employees at the two utilities.
After Mills vetoed an earlier Pine Tree Power bill in 2021, IBEW 1837 business manager Tony Sapienza said that “the change to a consumer-owned utility would bring with it tremendous risks and uncertainty” and the union remained “opposed to replacing Central Maine Power and Versant Power with a consumer-owned utility.”
Likewise, the executive board of the 40,000-member Maine AFL-CIO came out against Pine Tree Power last year.
“The majority of workers at CMP and Emera Maine do not support this proposal,” Maine AFL-CIO President Cynthia Phinney said at the time. “They do not want these companies sold and thrown into legal uncertainty.”
One concern raised by the unions is that, because Pine Tree Power would be a quasi-municipal entity run by an elected board, any workers could be considered public employees. Under state law, public workers are prohibited from striking.
Pine Tree Power and the Our Power campaign, meanwhile, accused CMP and Versant of “spending big on fear tactics and misinformation to trick both workers and customers” while predicting Pine Tree Power would lead to “more and better jobs for utility workers than the status quo.”
Damn. Even the union (and the AFL-CIO!) didn't want their community to have their own power. Marx continues to be burdened by the weight of being right all the time:
[Unions] fail partially from an injudicious use of their power. They fail generally from limiting themselves to a guerrilla war against the effects of the existing system, instead of simultaneously trying to change it, instead of using their organised forces as a lever for the final emancipation of the working class…
God this is depressing
They do not want these companies sold and thrown into legal uncertainty.”
Americans really do deserve our fate
World's greatest democracy btw