Letter to the editor: Rise up against CMP’s burdensome rate increases
Everyone knows that Maine winters can be brutal. In our rural state, some residents may become isolated, and for those who are low income, the need for reliable and affordable electricity is imperative.
Central Maine Power is the largest electricity provider in the state. The utility giant serves 600,000 customers in central and southern Maine, which is equal to about 78 percent of Maine residents.
Last week, we learned that for CMP customers, electricity rates will increase 6.8 percent in 2019. CMP customers’ bills average about $88 per month, which will go up to about $94 per month under the new rates.
That may not sound like a steep increase, but when you are low income, perhaps living on nothing but Social Security – as we know one-third of Mainers 65 and older do – that extra cost is going to be tough to absorb.
This rate increase is coming at a time when CMP has yet to distribute the savings it received under the 2017 federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act directly to customers. This should have happened at the beginning of 2018. Instead, the company wants to hold on to that money, saying it will offset an additional proposed customer rate increase yet to be determined. How can CMP be asking for even more?
Access to electricity should be fair, affordable, accurate and transparent. The experiences that CMP customers have weathered in 2018 and will continue to face in 2019 are anything but that.
CMP needs to do better for its customers, and we urge all Mainers who buy their electricity through CMP to make their voices heard. Raise your voice before they raise your rates.
Karen Evans
advocacy volunteer, AARP Maine
https://www.pressherald.com/2018/12/18/letter-to-the-editor-rise-up...
Portland
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Comment by arthur qwenk on December 18, 2018 at 6:30pm
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A passive uninformed population base allows these abuses.
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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