Adding wind and solar does indeed cost the average electricity price to go up. This is partly because there are many tax credits for wind and solar Additionally, when some customers who are wealthy enough to install their own generation save on their electric bill, the price for other customers who are not so fortunate goes up. This is because the price of delivery of electricity does not change with the addition of wind and solar. So some customers are getting free power, which is awesome for them, but the cost to maintain the grid has to come from somewhere and it comes from the less fortunate people who don't have the resources to install their own wind and solar.

Decommissioning was completed in 2005 but the costs were in utility rates years beyond that. They were deferred to limit sticker shock on customer electric bills.

Nuclear is safe, except for that pesky problem of disposing of spent fuel rods with a half-life of 10,000 years. Maine had been there and done that. We JUST finished paying for Maine Yankee decommissioning.

The health care crisis here is not unique to people on disability and welfare like yourself. People who have worked and paid taxes all their lives, who pay high premiums for health care coverage, cannot get access to health care. They wait months to see a doctor. I know of one guy who had a heart attack who could not get into a hospital for treatment because there were no beds available. He is waiting to get his first visit with a cardiologist AFTER HAVING A HEART ATTACK.

At least you get your benefits free or nearly free. The rest of us are paying through the nose and told to wait weeks or months to see a doctor.

Then maybe you are operating under old, grandfathered rules. The link I posted was current, from the Maine Public Advocate's office. It specifically references two bills.

I never meant to imply you did not know whether or not you had solar panels. But the rest of us internet strangers do not have knowledge of that. You did not need to be a dick about it.

Have a happy new year.

I like the current one because it actually shows what Maine is all about. Men representing the sea and the land, a moose, pine trees, and our motto Dirigo. I absolutely can pick it our from other state flags of that style.

If you cannot pick out the Maine flag from the others, maybe learn a bit about what it means.

I am not a fan of any of the old versions. Most of them look like they were drawn by a kindergartener. The "more detailed" version is slightly less objectionable to me but I don't really care for any of them.

Not sure if your raffle idea would pass muster with the Maine liquor inspectors. Liquor sales in Maine are essentially dictated by the liqor commission. Some places might have more choices than others, but I doubt you will see any bottles getting raffled off.

Is this with rooftop solar panels or community solar? Sounds like you have your own panels on your roof.

Rooftop panels give you net metering with one bill from CMP that gives you credits for what your system produces.

Community solar gives you credits for your share of a solar farm with two bills. One from CMP with credits at full price for the solar, then a second bill from the solar farm for the same KWH but at a discount.

If you don't believe me, check out the link I provided in another comment

Exactly what kind of product/service wrte you seeking? I have always booked appointments for health care, car service, and haircuts, plus reservations at high-end dining establishments. Other stuff, I've had no problem with coming in w/o appt.

>I’ve seen two of them and they offer the credit directly off of the standard CMP bill.

And they will rebill you separately at the supposedly discounted rate. This is how the rules work on community solar.

Maine Public Advocate explains how it works:

https://www.maine.gov/meopa/electricity/community_solar

Every one I have seen for community solsr says "savings UP TO 15 percent" off standard offer. Pretty sure you have to wait a couple months to see that credit, and the community solar provider bills/credits separately from your regular power bill.

Sounds like an awful lot of work to receive (and verify) a rather small savings.

I have no idea what the 70 percent is about, unless it is one of the solar providers doing rooftop installation for net meeting. That is a whole different animal than community solar.

>Desert of Maine. And I grew up in the town next door.

You have not missed a thing.

>It had just started to snow...

IOW, no snow had actually accumulated on the road. You are doing 40, have a huge line of cars behind you, and are holding up traffic.

News flash: you do not need to slow to a crawl at the sight of the first snowflake.

If you are that scared to drive on snow, do the motoring public a favor and stay off the road.

I am an industry retiree who knows more about running a power grid than most of the internet strangers here. My main fault is that I sometimes think people will listen to reason instead of being sheep to a corrupt politician.

Have a nice night. But be careful what you wish for. There is zero evidence a state takeoner will get you cheaper or better power.

To those of you who think the government (state or federal) should own the power grid: Have you seen how the DOT maintains roads? How the IRS treats citizens? You want that for your utilities? I sure don't.

There is absolutely no data to support any of the alleged benefits this initiative claims to offer. The "control" over the utility would come from a board of politicoams who don't have the slightest idea how to run a power grid. Led by a dude who consistently lies to further his own personal agenda. You think things are bad now... wait till Seth takes over.

Hopefully the voters of Maine will have enough sense to vote this down. Say what you will about CMP.. better the enemy you know. ...

Good. Whether or is $9 billion or $13.5 billion, it is a ludicrous amount of money to pay toward changes that have zero chance of improving anything.

I also find it interesting that the top donor for the Pine Tree Power campaign lives on an offshore island that is not served by either of the utilities to be taken over. Is she Seth Berry's long lost cousin or what?

You claim they do poorly with storm recovery. I offer several examples documenting how they have actually improved and you refuse to acknowledge facts. You and many others here are indeed blinded by hate when you cannot acknowledge the good that they have done.

>98 was another animal and as a lifelong mainer there is nothing these days that has ever compared.

I agree there is no comparison. CMP recovers from storms far, far more efficiently today than they did 20 years ago. This is a fact that cannot be disputed It is truly unfortunate that people like you are so blinded by hate that you cannot see it.

Exactly what have they done to customers? Exactly where is the corruption you all speak of?

I've been a customer of CMP f or about 40 years at four different locations. I use power, a meter measures what I use, the company sends me a bill, and I pay it. Rinse and repeat every month.

I might have been late on a couple payments so they'd send a reminder and I paid without getting shut off. I have lived through my share of outages. Most people I know have had no problem with them.

Yeah, they revamped their billing system a few years back and it had some bugs like any conplex billing system would. They fixed them, made customers whole, and provided additional bill credits to compensate for inconvenience.

The recent price increase was on the supply side, which they have no control over and get no revenue from.

So exactly what issue do you have with how they treat customers? They do the best they can. Delivering power costs money; do you think it should be free? If so, than the choosing beggars sub might be more to your liking.

VT and NH did not get the worst of this storm.

Vermont has no coastline. NH has maybe 10 miles of coastline. Maine had thousands of miles of coastline.

Guess where the winds were strongest for the longest period of time? THE COASTLINE

You crack me up with your distortions. Here is what is really happening.

1998 ice storm affected 360,000 customers and took more than 3 weeks to repair. 3 WEEKS.

2017 Halloween bomb cyclone affected more than 400,000 and was fixed in 9 days.

This recent storm was over 300,000 and is on track to be fixed in 5 or 6 days.

CMP is facing nastier weather and completing repairs far more quickly than the ice storm.

Try actually digging up facts instead of spreading false info.

Is that you, Seth? Or is it one of Seth's minions? Delivery rate actally has NOT gone up dramatically.

Sad that you feel the need to lie to further your personal agenda.

The person pushing the Pine Tree Power proposal is as corrupt as anyone. He is also ignorant about the costs and challenges involved with running a grid.

$13.5 billion, people. And that is just the cost of acquiring the infrastrcture. Does not even take into account the cost to hire a FOR PROFIT company to operate the grid since the politicians pushing this don't know how.

Not to mention the loss of millions in property tax revenues taking all that I frastructure off the tax rolls.