In the mailbag this morning:
"2010-305 is a CMP Stranded Cost Case run by Ben Smith simultaneous to 2010-377, the case dealing with Bangor Hydro Electric's proposed rate increase that several residents and the Maine Office of the Public Advocate are challenging.
The procedures (for the CMP case referenced above) are exactly the same as in 2010-377, the case against BHE proposed rate hike, - telephone conferences, hasty premature agreements to Stipulations, you name it. They're doing it all the same. It's weird!"
The Governor will have the opportunity to appoint a new Commissioner after April 1 when one of the seats becomes vacant. Hopefully, the new Commissioner will take a strong stand for business in Maine which means at least preventing any increase in utility rates. Better yet - reduce them. When the Governor said in his Inaugural Address that it was time to put people before politics, we can only hope he also meant putting survival before greed.
Some of the Intervenors in the Bangor Hydro case, of which this writer is one, have already notified the Commission (via the appointed and taxpayer paid Hearing Examiner, Ben Smith) they will not agree to the current stipulated settlement on the table. We want this case to go before the full board of Commissioners. It is unlikely the case could be conducted until after April 1, 2011.
We want to give the ratepayers a chance to be heard. That includes year-round residents who may be living on fixed incomes (while Social Security does not recognize the "inflated cost of living" we experience here in Maine).
It also includes businesses like Lemforder who closed up shop in Brewer after five years because they were paying 5 cents/kilowatt doing business in Virginia but 16 cents/kilowatt in Brewer,ME (Bangor Hydro Electric rates).
If the Governor wants to turn the business environment around in this state, he must resolve the ever-increasing costs of electricity and power. That begins with BHE and CMP and the position that has become entrenched at the MPUC - that annual rate hikes are acceptable.
One Intervenor believes "The reason for making the ratepayers pay utilities bad debts is $200 billion in stranded costs are left over from nationwide deregulation. It would be a massive transfer of wealth from shareholders to consumers if the utilities (companies) were forced to pay their own bad debts." Just TARP all over again. Didn't we learn that wasn't such a great idea?
She has a point if one looks at some of the "justification" points BHE used initially for the proposed rate hike currently under review.
For instance: Why should Maine ratepayers be responsible for the "unfunded pension liability of BHE employees"?
A question all Maine voters should be addressing to their state representatives and senators: Did the Maine Legislature REQUIRE BHE to sell off their generating power sources back in 2000? (That is a gem of information one of the BHE attorneys stated to this writer in a recent telephone call. Supposedly the rationale was that a free market would reduce utility rates.) Or could the "gem" have been to transfer my irritation at BHE's greed? All I have seen is rates for "delivery" of my kilowatt usage go UP year after year until they now exceed the cost of the kilowatts used.
Write to Governor LePage and URGE him to appoint a new PUC Commissioner who will be an advocate for the people and businesses of Maine. http://www.lepage2010.com
As to BHE's rush for a settlement, knowing that many of the Intervenors' issues have not been resolved, perhaps it is because BHE does not want this case to go to trial before the full Board of Commissioners. With the current environment and political administration, there might be some justice for Maine's people and businesses if all this information was exposed under the bright light of public scrutiny.
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