On Sept. 23, CMP got front-page coverage in the Morning Sentinel to repeat their big lie. They got a CMP union representative to say that the Our Power referendum would create an agency run by politicians. That is an outright lie and they know it. Joseph Goebbels said, “If you’re going to tell a lie, tell a big one and tell it often.” CMP and its foreign owners got the message.
Actually, CMP ratepayers would elect seven of us ratepayers as board members, and they would vet and hire six industry experts to join them on the board of directors. The board would then vet and hire competent upper management. All the middle management and lower-level employees would stay employed at their current salaries.
The difference is that the company would be owned by the ratepayers, not by foreign governments and investors, so $187 million of our payments would not be sent out of the country every year. As a nonprofit, Our Power could borrow money at less than half the interest rate that CMP pays when they do construction. We save again.
CMP is guaranteed an 8%-12% profit for their big construction jobs. This motivates them to build as many huge power lines as possible, even when using distributed solar farms is cheaper. If we are to fully electrify our economy, the grid will have to be three times as big as it is now. We don’t want to pay extra billions of dollars for it.
But the truth is not going to affect what you hear from CMP. Expect to keep hearing the big lie in the news and in your mail. This is how they operate.
Richard Thomas
Waterville
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