With coronavirus full steam, a little April snowstorm and others looming, Central Maine Power can’t seem to get out of its own way. Why should nearly 260,000 Mainers lose power in April? Is it because CMP has not upgraded its antiquated grid ? Or maybe they’re spending too much on ads advertising their clean energy corridor?

While a majority of Mainers are against this corridor (according to Natural Resources Council of Maine polls), the private foreign consortium that is CMP is spreading rumors and misinformation about so-called benefits of this corridor and insulting Mainers’ intelligence.

Maine people know the benefits of a consumer-owned utility. It’s a nonprofit power authority owned and operated by Maine people, not Maine’s government. Maine is already home to several consumer-owned utilities. Half the town of Madison has a consumer-owned utility. After this past storm it was down for only a few hours, while the remainder of Madison, on CMP operations, was informed of several more days without power.

These are troubling times, particularly with this pandemic. What about those who rely on refrigeration to preserve life-saving expensive medicines? Electrical outages are occurring more frequently to CMP ‘s for-profit grid. In comparison, consumer-owned utilities have a clear track record. Fifteen to 25 percent lower electric bills, local ownership with reinvestments staying in our communities adding to higher wages, better service, expansion of broadband to everyone and consistent upgrades and modernization of our entire grid. Check out the new organization, mainepower4mainepeople.org

Clifford Krolick

Parsonsfield