Recently it was announced that Pine Tree Power collected enough signatures to get on the ballot in 2023. This got my attention as a small business owner.

Everyone knows restaurants were hit hard during the pandemic. I’m the proud owner of Governors restaurants, with six locations from Lewiston to Presque Isle, and we’re asking the same questions as other small business owners across the state. How do we keep our prices affordable as supply costs keep increasing alongside the price of heating oil and electricity? We’re all feeling the strain.

So when I see a question of whether Mainers should borrow billions from big banks to forcibly buy out Central Maine Power and Versant Power and replace them with a government-run utility, my answer is absolutely not.

This so-called Pine Tree Power wants us to elect politicians so they can make all the policy decisions about our electricity. And then those politicians want to turn around and hire a private company, possibly even CMP or Versant, to manage the whole thing for $80-plus million a year.

Pine Tree Power makes a lot of promises, but I’m left with more questions than answers. Can we deal with even more economic insecurity and still expect families, businesses and communities to thrive? Can we trust politicians to keep the lights on?

No. I’ll be voting against Pine Tree Power and hope others will, too.

Randy Wadleigh, Bangor