Letters: Maine needs a not-for-profit consumer-owned utility; Stop the CMP western Maine corridor Share Maine needs a not-for-profit consumer-owned utility The Maine Legislature should enact and Gov. Mills should sign LD 1708, an Act to Create the Pine Tree Power Company. This bi-partisan measure would allow Mainers to vote in November to decide whether or not to replace CMP and Versant with a not-for-profit consumer-owned utility (COU), owned by Mainers and governed by an elected, nonpartisan board of directors. It would be financed by low-interest bonds costing three percent or less, a fraction of what utilities like CMP or Versant are charged. Under a COU, rate payers would save an estimated $9 billion dollars over 30 years.