New rule adds restrictions on Maine utilities’ political spending

Utility companies’ political and advertising spending will get extra scrutiny under new rules being developed by Maine regulators.

The Public Utilities Commission plans to increase reporting and revise the definitions for some expenditures through new requirements initiated this week.

The move follows record-breaking spending in recent referendum campaigns on a Central Maine Power transmission line and public takeover of electric utilities .

Lawmakers last year passed a measure to boost spending disclosures to regulators.

Commission Chair Phil Bartlett said the new rule would add reporting and clarify some types of permitted spending, such as educational expenditures.

State law and commission rules have for decades banned shifting the cost of advertising or political spending onto ratepayers, Bartlett said.

“There’s not been a case, certainly not in recent history, where a utility has been able to recover anything with respect to political campaigning or advertising or so forth,” he said.

But Rebecca Schultz of the Natural Resources Council of Maine said that the nature of campaign spending has changed since the rules were last revised in the late 1980s, including the landmark Supreme Court decision in Citizens United .

“Utility regulators need a full and accurate picture of how political campaigns are being funded to be able to guarantee that Maine ratepayers are not paying for these activities,” Schultz said.

Electricity companies CMP and Versant Power said they comply with the state’s rules.

Limited ratepayer funds can be used for some programming crucial to utilities’ operations, but all other advertising is paid for by Versant’s shareholders, spokesperson Judy Long said.

“We have believed that such an arrangement, which has existed for a while, does protect ratepayers from bearing any unnecessary expense,” she said.

In a statement, CMP said it supported transparency and a fresh look at the issues in front of the commission.

“With this rulemaking underway at the commission, CMP will continue to advocate for our ability to communicate education and operations information, to support hundreds of local community organizations and charities, and to work to advance state-established policy goals for the benefit of our customers,” the company said.

This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public .