Public Power Resonates with Voters in Maine
The Climate and Community Project’s recent poll evaluated Mainers’ attitudes toward transitioning the entirety of Maine’s grid out of private ownership by the incumbent investor owned utilities, Central Maine Power and Versant, and into a consumer owned utility model. Mainers will vote this November on whether to create a new consumer owned utility called Pine Tree Power.
Our polling, conducted by YouGov, shows 55 percent of Mainers believed that utilities should be nonprofits. 37 percent are in favor of the transfer to consumer ownership and 25 percent are still undecided. Of Mainers that believe they have been misbilled, that number increases to 43 percent who plan to vote yes with 27 percent additional unsure. Furthermore, 60 percent of those surveyed had experienced an electricity outage in the past 3 months. You can read the full report at the link below.
About this Survey:
328 responses were collected by YouGov between October 12 and 20, 2023. It is a politically representative “modeled frame” of Maine adults, based on the American Community Survey (ACS) public use microdata file, public voter file records, the 2020 Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration supplements, the 2020 National Election Pool (NEP) exit poll, and the 2020 CES surveys, including demographics and 2020 presidential vote.
