CMP’s campaign against solar
Central Maine Power Co.’s political campaign to kill distributed solar energy in Maine is an outrage. It is the old story of a business monopoly lashing out at any and all competition.
The competition these days is small businesses and homeowners who install solar panels. At times during the year they generate excess, carbon-free electricity that they sell to CMP at retail rates. Under net metering, they need to buy it all back at the same retail rates. CMP claims this is an unfair subsidy. Yet, a 2015 study commissioned by the Maine Public Utilities Commission arrived at the opposite conclusion.
CMP is now calling on the Legislature to sustain the governor’s veto of LD 1504. This bill supports the current net metering program.
CMP is not an objective voice in this debate. Its primary loyalty is not to its customers, but to its stockholders. At this point in its history, the controlling stockholder is the Spanish conglomerate Iberdrola.
I was reminded of this non-customer loyalty recently. I have had a small solar array on my roof for the last 10 years. I asked for an accounting of my net metering arrangement and found that CMP had not properly credited my account since the smart meter went in five years ago. Had I not called, CMP said, they would never have discovered the problem.
Denny Gallaudet
Cumberland
LePage adopt Dakota
If Gov. Paul LePage is so concerned about the treacherous dog Dakota, why doesn’t he give her a “forever home”? The issue would then be resolved without the courts. Too easy?
Jean Baker White
North Haven
Threat to rural health care
My wonderful Down East vacation was marred only by the need to visit the emergency room at Downeast Community Hospital in Machias. I would like to applaud the professionalism, competence, compassion and efficiency displayed by all of the staff I encountered.
Having a very acute condition, I was taken rapidly back to the emergency room, had an IV started, and the questions and examination began. This all started before I even had time to take out my insurance card, and when I commented on that, I was told, “that really doesn’t matter — our job is to treat you no matter what.”
This is the way health care should be. The people of Washington County have a real gem in this hospital. We need to realize, though, that rural and inner-city hospitals have received a lot of support from the federal government, both directly through subsidized health insurance and through Medicaid expansion, which has covered more adults than ever. If these things go away with the changes under consideration in Washington, many of these facilities will be forced to close, and many, many Americans will suffer.
I was so happy to have a hospital nearby when I had what could have been a life-threatening condition.
Stephen Blythe
Melbourne, Florida
Poliquin doesn’t listen
When we read Tim Gallant’s July 14 BDN letter to the editor, “Poliquin Listens,” we had to laugh. As constituents of Rep. Bruce Poliquin, we sought for well over a month to schedule a meeting with him or a staff member in Bangor during the week of June 5, the 50 th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, to share our years of experience in the Holy Land and present a petition on the issue signed by more than 1,000 Mainers from 100 communities.
A staffer agreed to contact Poliquin’s scheduler to set up a meeting, but it took three more calls before we were finally connected to the scheduler and told there were no dates available. On June 20, we were told no one had time to see us in Bangor, but we pointed out that our futile efforts with Poliquin were quite unlike our experience with Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, both of whom and their staffs had met with us, as had his predecessor, Rep. Michael Michaud, five times.
The staffer finally agreed to see us, so we made our way to the Bangor building where his office is hidden away with no signs to indicate its location. The door was locked but finally opened, and we descended the steps into the office and met briefly with the late-arriving staffer.
The Mainers that Poliquin and his staff claim to “work diligently [to] serve” must be able bodied and extremely persistent to get the elusive congressman or his staff to listen.
Maurine and Bob Tobin
Deer Isle
Fix Maine disability program
LD 176, which would make changes to the disability program through the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, has been tabled at this time and needs to be looked at. There are many Maine families who are affected by state retirement including mine. My husband was a coach and then a teacher for the last 25 years.
My husband has many chronic health issues. He did not get a choice for the last 25 years where his money went because he is a teacher in the state of Maine, and it automatically went into the Maine retirement system, which denies many individuals for disability benefits. My husband applied to Social Security, and he was approved by them as a person who is disabled. The Maine retirement system has denied him three times because he had left his position instead of applying for disability while he was still employed.
My husband’s doctor stated at the last hearing for the bill that it is possible that my husband’s health could continue to deteriorate to the point that he will not live. My husband is not able to stand for more than five minutes because of his balance and visual difficulties.
It makes me disgusted with the fact that there are thousands of Maine individuals who have never worked a day and have never paid into any system, but my husband who has worked every day since he was old enough is not able to depend on the system he was forced to pay into.
Hannah Boudreau
Bangor