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Michael Cianchette is a Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan. He is in-house counsel to a number of businesses in southern Maine and was a chief counsel to former Gov. Paul LePage.
Gov. Janet Mills is spot-on.
Last week, she expressed skepticism about the so-called Pine Tree Power initiative, worrying that it would create another partisan electoral battleground.
She is right.
The Bangor Daily News outlined the issue. Passing the initiative would create seven new public offices with taxpayer dollars available to fund campaigns. While the seats would not be subject to party primaries, interest groups would absolutely rally around favored candidates.
The scale of the districts would be somewhere between the state Senate and federal congressional districts. Which could mean big electoral spending. And it will occur near continuously, as seats will be continually rotating onto the ballot.
When you think of prudent financial management and responsible long-term planning, does our nation’s most famous elected body — Congress — come to mind? The group that hasn’t passed a budget on time in 27 years?
Having perpetually revolving seats go to the ballot is just part of the perplexing structure of the would-be Pine Tree Power entity. Another strange aspect of this initiative is lost in the intricacies of energy policy.
Right now, energy companies are regulated by the Public Utilities Commission. That includes Central Maine Power, Versant, and anyone selling electricity into our market. The PUC is a government body, appointed by the governor, confirmed by the Legislature, which approves or denies the various rates charged to Mainers and businesses.
Under the Pine Tree Power system, the new government enterprise would still be regulated by the PUC. So a popularly elected board will be effectively reporting to an appointed regulatory commission. It is a bizarre structure.
At a conceptual level, the idea of having the state run our electrical transmission infrastructure has some wisdom. Treating wires like roads might make sense. And if we want to use that approach moving forward for newly constructed transmission infrastructure, let’s have the conversation.
Blame Angus King for the current state of play. When he pushed deregulation of our energy markets, it forced Central Maine Power and Bangor Hydro to sell their generation assets. They kept the wires. He should have forced them to sell their transmission assets to some state-run enterprise and let them keep the power plants.
But he didn’t. So here we are.
Arguing that the initiative will somehow remove the profit motive in transmission infrastructure is somewhat mistaken, I believe. The bill itself envisions the new entity will hire outside contractors to do all the things CMP and Versant presently do. Those outside contractors will bid for work. Their bids will have profit built into them.
It is entirely possible that balkanizing services into multiple subcontractors will not generate savings. Economies of scale are a real thing.
The real place where there could be change is new investment. Proponents of the initiative could temper their approach and require any new lines be owned by some type of new state authority. That authority could be like the PUC – appointed and confirmed – yet entrusted to manage their affairs directly, not subject to another board’s regulations.
The new authority could then contract with CMP, Versant, or anyone else for services. And, over time, either the government-run model will be proven viable at scale in Maine or be shown to be mistaken. If the former, then it can take future steps towards a broader role. If the latter, their assets could be sold to an investor-owned entity.
Yet, with Mainers facing an up-or-down vote on Question 3 as it is written, Gov. Mills’ concerns should remain front of mind. There are some legitimate problems with Maine’s electrical infrastructure. The solution is not adding more politicians to the mix.
