The measure, called Question 3, prompted heated debate in the months leading up to the election. Central Maine Power and Versant Power, the state’s dominant utilities, poured more than $40 million into a campaign opposing the referendum, outspending Pine Tree Power advocates 34 to 1. Political groups funded by the utilities and their parent companies mailed flyers and aired ads on TV, radio, and social media, urging Mainers to reject the measure, which would have effectively put the two companies out of business.
poured more than $40 million into a campaign opposing the referendum, outspending Pine Tree Power advocates 34 to 1.
boy that sure sounds democratic and not just bourgeois power
right? How is that even democracy?
Why is there even a fucking choice in the first place
“We are introducing a referendum opposing an act that would be in the best interests of the populace”
What happens when you fetishize absolute freedom I guess
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business as usual in
the bastion of freedom™ and democracy
And that’s while living literally one step away from one of the best state own power utility in the OECD, providing the cheapest electricity of the “western” world. Americans are a lost cause. 🤦
Which is that?
Hydro Québec. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t perfect. But they are way ahead of basically everyone else. 0.065CAD/kWh, while still bringing in billions in revenue to the state every year.
Part of the reason it’s so cheap is because they sell a lot of power to the US NW, in addition to contracts providing reserve power through reverse-pumping the dams.
It’s part of it, but it was this cheap even before those deals were made. Of course geography has a lot to do with it too!
Regions who have a good source of hydro power usually the most flexibility to change up systems relating to electricity.
Its why for example Norway is capable to flip to EVs so quickly (in 2022, 80%+ vehicles sold were EVs). 95% of Norway’s electricity is hydro power.
But they are way ahead of basically everyone else. 0.065CAD/kWh
Lol I have to pay 0.37€ per kWh, literally two orders of magnitude higher.
I think your math is wrong. .37 / .065 is 5~. A pound is worth around 1.7 cad. So you’re paying around 9x the price with currency conversion, or a bit less then an order of magnitude. Two orders of magnitude would be 100 times the price.
Thank god all them hippies got those nuclear plants shut down, am I right?!
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Calgary, Alberta
Yeah that tracks
On one hand I have an impulse to call the voters morons but it can’t be right, this level of propaganda is ungodly. What exactly does a power company’s propaganda even look like?
One of their arguments I believe was that it would actually be more expensive under public, because the cost of the buyout would be passed on to customers’ bills. That probably resonated even though the cost of the buyout was overinflated by them.
cost of the buyout
if that was such a concern they should’ve just allotted 1 dollar to the buyout
good argument for expropriating capitalists without compensation and blowing their brains out if they complain
voters morons but it can’t be right
This is the imperial core, you don’t have to make apologies for bourgeois proletariats.
They put a large man in a hard hat and a flannel on TV and in a heavy Central Maine accent he said “Government run power is too expensive for us taxpayers”
The voters also killed a constitutional amendment to remove a provision that was ruled illegal in federal court 20 years ago and hasn’t been enforced since.
Edit: They actually voted against two constitutional amendments to bring our laws in line with federal law
funny how it takes a plebiscite the company is allowed to campaign in to create a public utility, but selling off a public utility never comes with a plebiscite?
tbf they did call a plebiscite for a similar thing to sell off the water utility in somerville nj, unfortunately our local DSA chapter didn’t notice it in time and started campaigning against it waaaaayyyy too late so it passed.
our local DSA chapter didn’t notice
lmao damn
i can’t even really say anything cause as a member of our chapter’s RnR working group alot of that was on me.
This sort of thing makes me more convinced than ever that socialists need a professional, cadre-oriented approach to their work. Relying on volunteers for everything is a recipe for burnout and failure.
True, but tbf again I’m def willing to submit to self-critique on this one, I think I had a bit of an ultra-leftist error of trying to focus too hard on making solidarity statements for various events while ignoring local electoral struggles. Definately going to pay harder attention to local referendums next time around
Maybe next time there shouldn’t be a vote
All the old people were inundated with ads on their favorite radio and TV programs. Outspent 40-1 with our own money.
Democratic governor was against it.
We never had a chance.
Outspent 40-1 with our own money
I sure am glad we don’t have unions. Wouldn’t want my money going to anything political
Don’t ask next time.
The state’s dominant utilities poured more than 40 million into a campaign opposing the referendum
I think this was probably the reason
World’s greatest democracy btwHmm I wonder
Do proponents of a hellfire of propaganda convincing the average American (who is quite uneducated) to behave in a certain way argue “that was their choice” or something
People are completely hostile to the idea that their opinion could ever be swayed or manipulated. They alone are the Logical Free Thinker™️ Completely immune to propaganda and manipulation. They voted against their own self-interest because they just felt like it, completely freely of their own volition.
We’re losing the propaganda war and need to figure out how to turn it around. Especially when we don’t have $40 million to toss at TV ads to scare boomers
People still have agency, you can be scrupulous and skeptical. Stop treating literate adults with access to the internet like literal babies.
I think you may be giving the average burger brain a little too much credit here.
See right there, you insulted them by calling them “burger brain”, that itself is an example of how we don’t just give people a pass because propaganda exists. We rightfully mock them for stupidly falling for it so blatantly. We don’t treat them like innocent toddlers who believed their parents when they told them a magic fairy leaves them money in exchange for their teeth.
Of course people have agency but no one’s immune to propaganda
No one is completely immune, but that does not mean everyone is equally scrupulous.
Also we don’t give everyone a pass just because propaganda exists, plenty of racist propaganda exists, but we still mock, condemn and hold to account Klansman and Neo-nazis. We don’t treat them like hapless babes lost in the woods who couldn’t help but fall for it.
Then what is to be done about all of these shitty Mainers?
Accept they aren’t really reachable, focus on reaching the people we can. Don’t infantilize them, insult them, make memes about how dumb they are so they feel shame for being so poorly informed which will discourage them from showing their ass in the future. Seek to dis-empower them, create new political structure that don’t allow them as much of a say in society.
The difference between people that vote in favour of shitty policies like this vs people that vote for racist policies is huge. You cannot fault the average person for voting in favour of keeping utilities private the same way you can fault people voting for nazi policies. Understanding why a publicly owned utility is better for any non-capitalist (meaning people that own capital, not people who prefer capitalism) is a matter of political literacy, of which the average American is objectively severely lacking. It’s easy to fall for propoganda (and at a 40:1 ratio there’s no winning here) when there’s no deeper understanding of the implications. Voting in racist policies is totally different imo. It doesn’t require political literacy to understand that racism is bad, if you fall for racist propaganda then more severe measures are needed, something deeper is at play.
30/70
Oof.
Bourgeois “democracy” at work. I hate corporations doing this shit.
“We gave you a choice between a good thing and a bad thing. We may have sunk a lot of resources into the bad thing, but the beautiful part about it is that we gave you a choice unlike those authoritarian countries.”
Fucking love democracy man
Reminds me of when patient ratios for nurses in I believe Vermont went to a ballot measure and after a massive ad campaign it barely failed. Not like the public really understands what it’s like and what’s cut when you’re understaffed and the slick ads tell them that it’ll make things worse so they believe it. Then you get national professional organizations celebrating the defeat because they’re all ghouls and don’t give a shit about the floor nurse burning out after running with an 8:1 in med surg or 24:1 at rehab where you have 20 minutes to allot each person, good luck actually giving people proper care.
there was a bill in California last year that would have required dialysis clinics to have a doctor/nurse/PA present during patient treatments, and they would have to get permission from the state’s department of health before they could close clinics or reduce patient services, among other things like having to provide the state with a list of people who had more than 5% ownership interest in the clinic. Of course private health companies like DaVita spent more than $75 million buying ads that were just thinly-veiled threats like “hey you love your family members with kidney disease, right? It would be a shame if we just closed all these clinics…” and so of course the bill failed with almost 70% of people voting no.
idk how anyone can consider this country a democracy
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Burns down the state from not doing maintenance on power lines. Raises rates.
who are trying to raise rates another 20% while we’re already paying the highest prices in the country
there’s a bunch of california local public owned for electricity https://www.cmua.org/members
i’m pretty familiar with EBMUD and SMUD. Way cheaper electricity, cleaner, local better jobs compared to the poor neighboring souls still stuck on PG&E for electricity.
i remember SMUD tried to expand into yolo county back in like 2009? and it was copy/paste same from this article with PG&E spending the world to stop it, successfully. those idiot voters got their wish (or more charitably: got manufactured) and have been getting fleeced hard since.
STUPID FUCKIN LIBERTARIANS DO YOU WANT BARBARISM? THIS IS HOW YOU GET BARBARISM
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I mean yeah they definitely do. Socialism isn’t going to give them child brides.
We’re gonna try something similar in my county, sucks to see these referendums get crushed.
