The average U.S. household spends 2 to 3 percent of their income on electric bills every year, according to the website ElectricChoice.com. Mainers pay a higher percentage than the residents of all but two other states. It’s expensive to fuel our homes.
The Clean Energy Corridor (New England Clean Energy Connect) will provide some much-needed relief. With NECEC, clean, renewable hydropower will flow directly into Maine’s electrical grid in Lewiston and then straight into our homes – enough hydropower, in fact, to fuel 70,000 Maine homes.
This discounted hydropower will save Mainers $140 million in direct electric rate relief and another $350 million in lower wholesale electricity costs over the next 15 years. Our lower-income neighbors will see an additional $50 million in savings.
Three out-of-state fossil fuel companies – Calpine (based in Texas), Vistra (also based in Texas) and NextEra (based in Florida) – want to stop NECEC because they see it as a threat to their bottom line profits. They even financed a petition-gathering campaign to put a question on the ballot to stop clean energy from coming into Maine.
The good news is that we citizens now have an opportunity to endorse NECEC. We get to vote to lower our electric costs. By voting “no” on Big Oil’s ballot initiative, we can ensure a low-cost, clean-energy future for Maine.
Say “no” to higher electric rates. Vote “no” on the November Big Oil ballot initiative, designed to stop clean energy.
Cammy Reali
Portland
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