After the vote on Pine Tree Power, voters may reasonably ask if public power can ever be adopted in Maine.

An established power company can always protect its profits by deploying some of its gains to defeat public-oriented advocates who have small budgets. The utility’s spending is uncontrolled, freeing it to build a major campaign aimed at misleading voters.

The president of Central Maine Power saw Pine Tree Power’s defeat as approval of his utility. More likely, it showed its power to massively outspend Pine Tree Power advocates, making impossible a fair fight.

Maybe it can’t be. The replacement of a traditional form of utility by another, especially statewide, is necessarily complicated. Public power would replace an entity that is an established institution. The proposed nonprofit would not yet exist, because the initial decision must still face a legal and regulatory process undoubtedly drawn out by the original utility’s effort to reverse the vote.

Public power advocates cannot win over political leaders and editorial writers who seem to prefer the impossible – a fully developed proposal that answers all possible objections, including the real cost of the change. Without leadership in understanding the issues, voters left in doubt vote “no.”

These factors discourage public power. But if it is an appealing idea as many people believe, the vote could serve as the start of a longer-term effort. There is a way to try again while overcoming problems Pine Tree Power could not surmount. Take it in steps.

Nebraska is a fully public power state, but it does not have a statewide utility. Instead communities created their own local utilities or cooperatives. Issues could be studied and debated locally in concrete terms and could be decided when the questions were answered. Gradually, the state as a whole came to adopt public power. Other states also have a strong public power presence.

Such a process is now possible in Maine. However, a single obstacle remains. Under the law, the Public Utilities Commission can only give its approval to municipal action if the existing utility agrees. Changing just a few words in Maine law, leaving approval to the PUC but without a utility veto, would make it possible for Maine municipalities to make their own choices.

This modest reform requires a legislative majority unless the pro-utility governor forces a supermajority or a referendum. Small local utilities work and have lower rates; Maine has several of them now.

The other way to keep public power moving forward is to form a non-governmental action group, perhaps called the Maine Power Watchdog. The Public Advocate was created because of such outside activism decades ago. Unfortunately, the advocate’s office has become part of the government establishment, acting like an additional regulator rather than as the aggressive defender of consumer interest.

An independent group would speak for customers, taking a critical look at utility plans and actions. It could be a factor in the regulatory process and put pressure on the public advocate to fight for lower rates and better service as originally intended.

Even more important, the advocacy group could keep the issue in front of the media and the public. Without such a sustained effort, people tend to accept poor service and high prices as natural and inevitable. Meanwhile, unreliable electric service remains a fact of life and the bills keep coming.

Reacting to the Pine Tree Power vote brings to mind remarks of the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at a critical moment in World War II: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

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