In November, Mainers will decide whether they want to put two price-gouging private power companies out of business and take control of the state’s electric grid. So-called progressive consultants are being paid to oppose the measure.
This article tries to pull on the heartstrings, but they straight up say the utilities brought in 157MM and paid 142MM in salaries and wages, meaning very specifically not materials costs or logistics costs.
CMP, which provides 80 percent of the state’s residential power, reported $157 million in net income last year — more than the $142 million the company said it spent on total salaries and wages.
The article then refers to this incomplete number as “profits” multiple times, but the utilities have a capex spend of 260 million dollars, through their parent companies - because they don’t have the cash-on-hand to do it themselves.
Jon Breed, a spokesman for CMP’s parent company, said that CMP’s rates “are some of the lowest in New England,” and that the parent company also “made more than $260 million in capital investments into Maine.”
I’m not seeing how a government takeover of this utility is going to save anyone any money. Margin rates there, according to the article itself, are near-zero, and acquiring the company and it’s infrastructure will incur costs.
How exactly is it a good plan if it’s not helping the people? There’s no goal of more sustainable infrastructure or radical change in infrastructure policy that will make supplying energy cheaper.
Imo there’s a reason the politicians listed are against this plan and it’s that the plan sounds good but seems counter-productive for the actual citizens.
I’d much rather see the investment and effort into a state fund that provides emergency energy funding to those who need it - it’s already a utility anyway.
I’m very in favor of utilities just being publicly owned, because they basically are anyway, but this plan doesn’t seem like a good way to do it.
Without the capital investment this utility has at the moment, the publicly-owned utility company literally would not have the money to fund expansions of infrastructure. That problem needs to be solved in a way that is cheaper for residents for this to be a viable path forward.
CMP, which provides 80 percent of the state’s residential power, reported $157 million in net income last year — more than the $142 million the company said it spent on total salaries and wages.
Exactly. Instead of spending on upgrading infrastructure, diversifying energy sources, investing in assistance, they are investing in themselves.
From the article :
Maine is the most heavily forested state in the country and we have some of the oldest infrastructure in the country
And that’s the president of CMP talking, AFTER they raised delivery fees this spring. No wonder mainers are pissed
Government control will cap salaries and bonuses and allow more flexibility with the excess funds to invest in the kinds of programs you suggest
You totally skipped over the 260MM capex where they invested in infrastructure - capex that would otherwise have to come from citizens. The reason the infrastructure is old is that it is expensive as fuck to renew it, and that doesn’t make financial sense for a utility so they need investment capital to do it.
Citizens controlling the company does not mean workers will work for free. I find it strange people can be like “wages need to go up” and also think “let’s cap the wages of linemen.”
The math just isn’t there for it without something like an ongoing investment fund set up years in advance, prepared to shoulder the investment burden. I’m all for that, but that requires diverting existing funds or raising taxes, both of which have their own challenges
The Capex did come from the citizens in either circumstance. The objective is to eliminate massive administrative costs associated with business owner dividends. That’s the part that is currently paid for by the citizens of Maine.
This article tries to pull on the heartstrings, but they straight up say the utilities brought in 157MM and paid 142MM in salaries and wages, meaning very specifically not materials costs or logistics costs.
The article then refers to this incomplete number as “profits” multiple times, but the utilities have a capex spend of 260 million dollars, through their parent companies - because they don’t have the cash-on-hand to do it themselves.
I’m not seeing how a government takeover of this utility is going to save anyone any money. Margin rates there, according to the article itself, are near-zero, and acquiring the company and it’s infrastructure will incur costs.
How exactly is it a good plan if it’s not helping the people? There’s no goal of more sustainable infrastructure or radical change in infrastructure policy that will make supplying energy cheaper.
Imo there’s a reason the politicians listed are against this plan and it’s that the plan sounds good but seems counter-productive for the actual citizens.
I’d much rather see the investment and effort into a state fund that provides emergency energy funding to those who need it - it’s already a utility anyway.
I’m very in favor of utilities just being publicly owned, because they basically are anyway, but this plan doesn’t seem like a good way to do it.
Without the capital investment this utility has at the moment, the publicly-owned utility company literally would not have the money to fund expansions of infrastructure. That problem needs to be solved in a way that is cheaper for residents for this to be a viable path forward.
Exactly. Instead of spending on upgrading infrastructure, diversifying energy sources, investing in assistance, they are investing in themselves.
From the article :
And that’s the president of CMP talking, AFTER they raised delivery fees this spring. No wonder mainers are pissed
Government control will cap salaries and bonuses and allow more flexibility with the excess funds to invest in the kinds of programs you suggest
You totally skipped over the 260MM capex where they invested in infrastructure - capex that would otherwise have to come from citizens. The reason the infrastructure is old is that it is expensive as fuck to renew it, and that doesn’t make financial sense for a utility so they need investment capital to do it.
Citizens controlling the company does not mean workers will work for free. I find it strange people can be like “wages need to go up” and also think “let’s cap the wages of linemen.”
The math just isn’t there for it without something like an ongoing investment fund set up years in advance, prepared to shoulder the investment burden. I’m all for that, but that requires diverting existing funds or raising taxes, both of which have their own challenges
The Capex did come from the citizens in either circumstance. The objective is to eliminate massive administrative costs associated with business owner dividends. That’s the part that is currently paid for by the citizens of Maine.
The CapEx came from a foreign holding company, so in no way did it come from the citizens.
I mean long term it all comes from the citizens seeing how that’s the sole source of income for the business.
The business isn’t profitable enough to do it’s own upgrades, so no, again, not citizens.
So to be clear it is currently a business operating at a loss?
Not operating at a loss and having hundreds of millions to spend are two very different things