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Greater than a century in the past, your forebears made a smart determination in establishing The Metropolis of Calgary Electrical System, offering public possession and management of your electrical utility. You’ve got reaped and proceed to reap substantial advantages from that call.
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Maine went in a special course. Our historical past is one in all small, native electrical firms being devoured up by two dominant Maine-based electrical utilities, that have been in flip devoured up by bigger, foreign-owned utilities — Iberdrola (Spain) and Emera (Nova Scotia).
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Over the previous twenty years, whereas Enmax grew Calgary’s preliminary $280-million funding to greater than $2.4 billion to the advantage of its residents, Maine’s two massive worldwide utilities disinvested in our electrical grid and help programs to the purpose the place Maine now has among the many worst data for reliability, and our two utilities constantly rank at or close to the underside in buyer satisfaction.
As we glance to do our half to scale back greenhouse gasoline emissions by decarbonizing our electrical grid and selling helpful electrification of our transportation and home-heating sectors, we want an electrical utility we will rely on — one which has as its sole obligation to boost the well-being of Maine residents and companies. In brief, we want an electrical utility similar to the one you’ve gotten.
Why are we telling you this? The reason being that many people in Maine help the institution of a Maine consumer-owned electrical utility to serve your complete state. As you could know, Enmax bought Emera Maine in March 2020 and altered the identify to Versant Energy. Based on Enmax, “Versant Energy pays a dividend to Enmax just like how Enmax pays a dividend to the Metropolis of Calgary.” It ought to come as no shock to you that Mainers would a lot want that its utility paid a dividend to the folks of Maine annually, similar to your utility does to you.
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To perform our goal of getting a Maine consumer-owned electrical utility, we’ve got initiated a residents’ referendum to determine the entity and to accumulate Versant Energy. Mainers might be voting on this in November 2023. To be clear, this referendum just isn’t a referendum on Enmax or the Metropolis of Calgary; reasonably, it’s an try to attain precisely what you’ve gotten — an electrical utility that’s owned by its prospects and is accountable to these prospects, not overseas shareholders.
We absolutely anticipated Maine’s different utility — Iberdrola — to battle our effort with the total breadth and scope of its sources. Already, it has spent greater than $15 million on this effort. We’re dissatisfied that Calgary has spent in extra of $3 million. We had hoped that the residents of Calgary would perceive our efforts, admire our long-term goal and let Mainers resolve for themselves what’s of their finest pursuits.
Accordingly, we ask the town to undertake a impartial place on this challenge. We might count on you to ask the identical of Mainers have been the circumstances reversed. In any case, you’ve gotten our dedication to deal with Versant Energy, Enmax and the Metropolis of Calgary as the last word shareholder pretty.
As this course of takes place over the subsequent few months, you’ll be able to acquire the most recent data from our web site, https://ourpowermaine.org/.
Richard Silkman is an economist and supporter of the Pine Tree Energy marketing campaign.