Kurt Pullman

We all know the saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

I worked at an electric utility owned and operated by municipal government in the Pacific Northwest and, in my experience, the squeaky wheels were the people with political connections.

With politicians in complete control of the region’s electric utility, any person or business able to make enough noise and grab the attention of elected officials would often get their issues resolved ahead of those with less influence.

If it irritates you that average people get skipped in line by others more connected to a politician, consider that this could happen in Maine if the Pine Tree Power referendum passes in November.

Requests from elected officials were immediately escalated to bureaucratic appointees who served the mayor or city council. They would direct non-appointed city employees, like me, to stop our work, shift our resources and deal with those requests, regardless of the non-productive ripple effect it created.

I can understand paying attention to constituents and making sure their needs are addressed, but that should be balanced with what’s best for all customers and for the power grid. All too often those perspectives were not considered.

Working with a revolving door of politicians who served two-year terms and had little to no understanding of the power grid was always a challenge. Significant time was spent educating them about the current state of the grid rather than working together to plan for the future. The electric grid is the world’s largest machine — we must look far beyond a two-year window to responsibly decide where to most effectively invest in upgrades to ensure we are prepared for the future.

Outages on the nearly century-old power grid were already challenging to manage due to antiquated equipment (wires, poles, transformers). With the utility pitted against other government departments (police, fire, public works, etc.) for funding, it was difficult to get the resources needed to maintain, repair and upgrade our electric system. It’s much less sexy for politicians to talk about poles and wires than a new fire station, so the funds rarely trickled our way.

Political pressures regularly contributed to strained relationships with labor unions, which ultimately impacted the customers in the form of slower response times and increased expenses. A perfect storm for reduced reliability, increased costs, and a poor customer experience.

I lay all this out to illustrate that government-owned, politician-led utilities are not as perfect as Pine Tree Power’s supporters want us to believe.

The biggest difference I see between the government-controlled utility I left and Central Maine Power, where I work now, is that at CMP everyone shares the same goals and values. There’s a long-term vision that includes strategic planning to ensure work gets done. We’re all moving in the same direction to meet our customers’ current and future needs.

CMP employs utility professionals who understand Maine’s power grid, have no political agenda, and are rate-paying customers, too. We are Mainers supporting Mainers.

Government control of the electric system and the proposed Pine Tree Power are bad models for electric utilities at this scale. I don’t want to be in the position again where I am forced to make a decision that I know is not in the best interest of my electric system, my customers or my team, just so that a politician can bolster their reelection prospects for another cycle.

This is ultimately what drove my decision to uproot my family and move 3,200 miles back to Maine — I wanted to be part of a hardworking team that leverages our collective years of experience and knowledge to do the right thing for our customers and our electric system every time.

I am proud to say that I have found that at CMP.

I encourage voters to think carefully about whether they want their electric utility run by politicians or, instead, a utility managed by technical experts with knowledge, experience and a vested interest to do the right thing for Maine.

Kurt Pullman of Brunswick, a senior manager at Central Maine Power, has worked in the energy sector for nearly 15 years with multiple utilities. Holding leadership positions in both government-owned/municipal utilities and investor-owned utilities has given him a unique perspective on the current debate about the electric system in Maine. Pullman is a graduate of Maine Maritime Academy and a proud Mainer.