If we haven’t figured out yet that fossil fuels are doing us major harm, after the year we’ve just had, we’re in big trouble. With so much warming already baked in above us, we must clearly plan for a more hopeful future to preserve as much as we can of the Maine we love.
That’s why Maine is transitioning to clean electricity by midcentury. Not so easy. By then, we will have to provide three times as much juice as we use today to replace the fuels most of our cars and homes still burn. That means building out a far more robust electrical grid, harvesting about half of our energy from offshore wind. More wires, more storage.
Who is better qualified to take on these expensive transmission challenges? Foreign-owned Central Maine Power and Versant, prioritizing profit for their shareholders, or a utility like Pine Tree Power, with the ability to borrow money at much lower rates than the private companies can?
Imagine the air we breathe is cleaner, wild weather is lessened, our farmers and fishermen have a better shot at making a living, and temperatures are held down by a state that generates its own clean energy and moves it around reliably as needed.
Who should we trust? The likes of CMP, with its abysmal track record and flood of advertising? Or a locally controlled nonprofit that prioritizes the renewable energy transition? Listen to both sides before you make up your own mind.
Sam Saltonstall
Brunswick
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