not i.

Nope.

Gas stove and a French press means I always have coffee ;)

Definitely taking a while to assess.

Have power but have to make an early morning emergency run to the Husqvarna dealer. The traction belt on my snowblower snapped after the first pass so the blower is sitting out in the driveway. Looking forward to doing a belt change out in the driveway

All set here. On to the next one.

Sorry man. The "assessing" nonsense is the pits. A few years ago I called CMP to get a tree off a line as it ran across a body of water that went to my house, it pulled it so tight I was waiting for it to hit the water. They sent a tree removal company and they got out of their trucks and laughed, got back in their trucks and didn't see anyone again for 3/4 of a year. My neighbor eventually called the cops to report it. Then it was fixed in a week. CMP customer service is trash.

Remember to vote for pine tree power in November.

This time we made it without losing power! I’m sorry you’re going through this, it’s so stressful in the winter. Can you get out and get a hot cup (or two) somewhere and get warm?

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Powers out: day 5/6. Generator is NOT broken. But the hook up to the home IS broken. So no heat. Partial power to run a space heater and reptile enclosure. And alas, no coffee.

I was looking forward to going to work this morning only to find a tree across the road wrapped in lines. Emergency services said it’s been there since 11pm.

Yeah because last time we voted against CMP it had zero repercussions /s

They’re fucking you over now, they’ve fucked you over before, they’re never going to stop fucking you over.

So just vote them out.

They’ve spent millions of dollars pretending they’re doing what’s best for the state by just….being here and not improving a gd thing and using the excuse that “they are doing their best” while delivering record breaking profits to their shareholders while Mainers sit in the cold and dark.

Invest in Maine.

Fuck CMP.

Get a percolator and a single colemen stove top burner. Will never be without coffee again. Almost a must living in maine.

Non-profit community power company FTW

I voted to invest in Maine. No on Question 1.

Supporting CMP isn’t supporting Maine

Our power didn't even flicker yesterday! Very surprised to have power.

Pine Tree Power, November 23.

The overarching reason for snowstorm power issues are trees. There are 2 solutions. First is to trim trees back from lines so that it is impossible for anything to fall on the lines. In residential areas this means a LOT of decorative trees will be gone. Or, spend a lot more money and underground the lines. Neither is cheap, neither is easy. It really doesn't matter, in the moment, who owns the lines. Storm response is a process, prioritizing different lines based on how many are downstream. They obviously want to first do the things that improve the most connections.

Remember - in November you can vote those useless assholes out of business.

Vote yes for Pine Tree Power.

Hello fellow York county resident. There are apparently 32,000 of us without power. This is 1/4 of the total homes in York county

CMP sucks

UPDATE: Power restored at 12:20pm. CMP still sucks.

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Is that klp? My mom hasn't answered me yet, wanna know if she's got power lol

"Assessing" as in "we have worse site update times than any online store in existence".

That storm right before Christmas, mine was out for 24 hours. When the power came back on, CMP's site still said "assessing". So don't give up hope!

Yup.

There are some outages in town as of last night but they are super-quick at getting service back.

Looks like the only outages in town are due to a CMP feed issue, so KLP is all done and waiting for CMP to get their shit together.

https://klpd.org/power-outages

This is an underappreciated point.

As much as everyone wants to vilify CMP, I'm sure if they rolled up in spring and said they were going to remove every tree on their property tall enough to fall on a line, all these people would lose their shit.

Anyone who owns overland power lines is going to have the same endless maintenance issues. We COULD bury everything, but then everyone would be complaining about rate hikes, or tax hikes if it's a subsidized project.

Long story short, the free ride of America's post-war boom is over; our marker has been called in and everything is going to be harder and cost more forever now.

Ugh that’s the worst! I’m having an extra cup just for you

Thank you! Her street is listed there, so hopefully if it's out they get it back. And obviously everyone else affected. It's too cold to be without heat. I did see khs had opened it's doors as a heating center last night, so that's good.

Thanks again!

In what way is your generator broken?

Great job, CMP:

https://i.imgur.com/HiWv5T4.jpg

Won’t even pretend to turn over when I try to start manually. Last time I used it was last spring and it worked fine but something has gone wrong with it.

"But if I talk back, dad'll hit me again"

How you sound rn

Most likely carburetor needs to be cleaned or gas is bad. Using fuel stabilizer and or ethanol free gas (if available) helps.

This is why we have a small propane camp stove in case all else fails. Good luck & here is to the rest of your day going a bit smoother.

Fueled up and primed? Oil good?

That snow was hell on my blower as well. ......and another foot is coming....

somebody doesn't understand deregulation

Switching ownership isn't going to change the fact Maine has a very large number of trees per mile of overhead line, that trees falling is what cause most outages, and also isn't going to change the fact that labor for trades jobs like line workers and cutters is incredibly tight right now.

While there are benefits to changing ownership, removing CMP from the holding group who also owns utility trucks and crews in southern New England limits the amount of regional workers available to respond to local outages.

Demanding power returns immediately following an outage is just not feasible or cost effective in most of our rural communities - and it has never been the case here. Hell, many of us have relatives who didn't even get power until the 1970s or 1960s. Same with roads, the reality used to be after a big storm you would just have to take it slow for a day or two - now people are demanding highway speeds resume the second the snow stops falling!

I would personally instead request we have the governor put additional financial restrictions in the top officers of CMP. It helps improve the financial ethics of their operation without forcing unintended consequences.

So, wait, are you voting for CMP to invest in Maine, or are you voting for CMP to avoid punishment?

Because you mentioned both.

Jetboils are rad. Sometimes I cook soup with it just course it's faster.

Power out here. Generator going. Luckily we have a propane stovetop so we can cook stuff and boiled snow for our toilets.

This is why a gas range and woodstove were not negotiable when we were house hunting a few years ago.

Worst case if we run out of propane, I can slowly boil water on top of the woodstove.

Thankfully I have my Costa Rican chorreador and a gas stove.

Power has been out here since 4pm yesterday. Was really hoping it would get fixed during the night and I’d wake up to normal but nope no luck. Work doesn’t even have power so I can’t even go there.

Mmmm yeah but remember this, the PUC only allows CMP to pass on a certain amount of routine maintenance costs to the customer as rate increases. Emergency storm repairs on the other hand, 100%.

They get to preserve their profits by flying in line crews from all over the country to fix issues that could have been prevented much cheaper with maintenance.

3/4 full and oil right where the directions say. We’ve had it for years and it mostly sat in garage

Sounds like it was a communication wire. CMP doesn’t take care of those, but would’ve taken a tree of if it threatened the power lines

Yes remember how bad they fucked us last time wouldn't want to anger them...

Jesus people need to collectively grow a pair and deal with this shit.

Wait til the gubment takes away your gas stove to save the children! Then you'll have to use a camping stove :)

Camping gas stove for the win! Also you can make a simple burner out of an old beer/soda can and some high proof alcohol. Every winter there is a day or so where this happens to me. Honestly kinda enjoy it. I can handle no power as long as I can make coffee. No power and no coffee?? Now way bub!

Have most of the house plugged into the F-150 Hybrid. Enjoying some hot coffee and getting ready to WFH on the hotspot.

Would understand if that were the case. But it was both power and cable line. How do I know? Because they fixed that line before when I was there.

I'm not on CMP power but I sure am glad my generator is working. If not I'd be very sad right now.

Or just get a better hood

No electricity, heat, or water. Shut off our water main and drained the pipes. Electric range, but thankfully I have a camping stove.

Currently 55 degrees inside and slowly dropping.

No ETA on restoration.

This... I plow a lot in Augusta. Had easily 2 dozen bucket trucks from New Brunswick staged in my lot all day waiting for a call that never came

We have an electric range but I've got a butane camp stove for coffee. Or the wood stove, or the Coleman whitegas stove.

Gotta have a backup for your backup.

Cutting back trees has been a battle for CMP even before they got bought and their service went to crap.

Underground wires are also not a panacea. Stringing lines in the air gives you clearance and cooling. You get neither of those underground. That's a bigger problem for the very high voltage trunk lines but it affects all of them. The work involved to keep big trunk lines operating underground is staggering.

We just have a little generator for our pellet stove, coffee maker, charges phones and a garage that becomes the fridge

CMP isn’t great, but wait until CMP turns into the DMV. That’s not an upgrade.

The federal Government is going to inadvertently freeze us Mainers to death in the pursuit of a healthy life style. Good thing our Upta camp skills and loose camping gear is there for the most extreme of times.

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Per Question 1: No means yes. Yes means no.

How about everyone whining get outside, locate the issue, start bucking up downed trees and then get a bucket truck up there and fix it? Sitting on reddit whining isnt fixing anything. I hear you, but we live in Maine you need to be prepared.

Yes, but also the line clearing would be passed on, as would the undergrounding of lines. There is no part of the capital infrastructure owned by the Avangrifters that we, the ratepayers, haven't given them through "cost of delivery". It's the biggest lie told by CMP and the PUC. Allowing for-profit infrastructure is harming the economy, and enriching the already wealthy.

The government is not taking away anyone’s gas stove and no one has suggested that they should

For anyone who doesn’t realize it an unhooded and unvented gas stove is a serious risk to indoor air quality and your health

At some point in the future state and/or the federal government may require any new constructions with gas stoves to include an outdoor vented hood. That would just be common sense and good practice.

How long has the gas been in it? Bad gas is usually the culprit. Anytime anything needs to sit for more than a month run true fuel. Ethanol is the engine killer.

Also if it's key start, check your battery

The story of Maine living.

I realize this is probably an unpopular take but I've never had a major problem with the BMV. You can do most of it online, they reply to emails promptly, solve issues quickly and, believe it or not, they're generally nice people. If government power does it like they do the BMV, it'll be infinitely better than CMP.

This explains so much. Like, everything.

I mean, it really ought to be the story of living everywhere.

I lived in Maine during the 1998 ice storm. We were without power for 69 hours which wasn't that long compared to some folks. My parents have a coal burning stove and a gas range. We couldn't bake anything but otherwise life was good.

I was in Mass during the 2008 ice storm, we didn't have power for 72 hours but we've got the wood stove and the Coleman stove and I put an inverter on the car battery to give some lights and internet.

These days we're probably good for a week or more and at that point the only thing we'd really be down is fresh veg and milk.

New York City actually did ban them in new buildings starting in 2024 for anything under 7 stories and in 2027 for anything over.

#freethegasrange

That makes sense in a city where venting your stove outside often means venting up into neighbors windows above you.

In fact there was a post on Reddit just last week or so that got a lot of attention on the front page where someone reported that they had been on all kinds of medications for breathing problems until they figure it out that a restaurant located at street level was venting out of their building and all the gases were coming up through their open window into their apartment located on a higher level just across the alleyway.

So banning gas stoves entirely within a city makes perfect sense and is a good practice

I’m sure it is, but to say that its not happening at all is disingenuous. It is happening and it could happen in other cities.

Don't forget the hand grinder!

I didn’t realize that cities were banning them entirely but after thinking about it it’s obviously a good practice

If people want to use gas stoves in an area where their vented fumes aren’t going to end up in somebody elses building that’s entirely different

What unintended consequences? How would there be fewer workers under public ownership?

Because private cable companies and health insurance are not bureaucratic nightmares?

Keeping folks from their morning coffee should be a jailable offense.

Power on here, you can come over for some coffee. 😊

Most of Kennebunk lost power due to the main feed line coming into the primary substation was taken out. Kennebunk has their own power company, Kennebunk Light and Power. My neighborhood went down before the substation did, so we were out from 5 pm to 830 am today. Word is that CMP didn’t fix the line in a timely manner because they didn’t care about KLP, even though fixing that one line would restore power to basically an entire town. CMP sucks. KLP is one of the hidden perks of living in Kennebunk. This is the longest I can remember being without power.

CMP is owned by a regional company and as such they have direct ability to send trucks from their CT or wherever office if Maine is slammed with outages but not CT.

While we could absolutely create a regional response plan that shares resources with other utilities regardless of ownership, there is a real concern that response times to major outages would be less efficient if the combined ownership and sharing plan that exists currently is changed.

Can you show where the language is for question 1?

Nature's hella fucked up right now. Dump all the storms for the season on us in January, fuck around with nothing later.

Yeah, BMV and the state tax office has responded to all my calls and emails in under 24 hours, I’ve been very pleased

We lost power AND internet! Both out since yesterday at 6am.

Primus stove and a jetboil, plus I've got a portable indoor fireplace (look it up, they exist). Same grid as the hospital so I'm usually in good shape, but it helps to be prepared.

I've even had positive interactions with MDOT, the water testing lab and other state agencies. Of course this is since Mills was elected.

It was so bad under Lepage. I guess it doesn't work as well when you defund government, fire the employees and lay waste to morale.

edit: word

I've never had a negative experience with a BMV in Maine, and I've been to at least three different locations at various times. If our power and service were as friendly, helpful, and efficient as the BMV experiences I've had, that'd be great!

/u/dadoftwins04 , FYI, it can be pretty easy to clean the carb depending on what generator you have. I have a Generac that wouldn't start, got it running by just spraying some carb cleaner into the carburator, opening the drain bolt to drain out old gas that was sitting in it, and then it pretty much started right up.

If I were you, I'd look up "how to fix [your generator model] won't start" on youtube, or just look at the manual and see how easy it'd be to spray into the carb. Especially if it's a Generac, chances are it's super easy, and with a quick trip to an auto shop to buy the cleaning spray you could have the generator up and running.

Have you ever heard of fire?

We're on the same grid as the elementary school which is also a shelter so we lose power infrequently and for short periods.

Still it pays to be prepared.

In midwest town we randomly lose power in the spring summer and fall :)

From what?

We have been without power for about 36 hours now. I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. No pun intended.

Fucking sucks

Serious question - have you ever tried to get them to do something they didn’t want to do? They basically tell you to go screw and you have zero recourse.

Granted, CMP isn’t great, but I have no idea why people love government agencies so much.

Nope. But I can cancel my cable and my HR team can put pressure on my insurance company. Even with CMP, the PUC has oversight.

We have zero recourse with the government.

> have you ever tried to get them to do something they didn’t want to do? They basically tell you to go screw and you have zero recourse.

It sounds like you're referring to some specific experience here. Not sure why you're being vague about it. But no, that hasn't happened to me. I have asked for minor not-in-the-job-description type favors a couple times (like making an extra copy of something) and they have always been happy to oblige.

Even if they weren't, though, would that really separate them from the customer service at most corporations? It's like pulling teeth to get most companies to do even the things they ARE supposed to do, because doing things costs them money and they know if they make it hard enough, many people will just give up.

> but I have no idea why people love government agencies so much.

Because government agencies have the goal of providing a service to you, not extracting the maximum profit from you while providing as little service as possible.

(And because many of us have traveled and lived abroad, and have seen firsthand what it's like when government services are actually well-funded).

The only experience I would classify as painless is anytime I’ve had to go in on a snow day and it was empty. I’ve had to argue with some employee at MV that yes, I really needed a REAL ID compliant license. She kept telling me they aren’t required and while I assured her that’s true, as a frequent flying it’s less hassle to have one. That was a 5 minute conversation after an hour long wait.

I won’t even get into my IRS story. Government agencies have zero interest in providing any real customer service.

I have spoke to CMP a few times and while it’s never a pleasant experience, they aren’t any better or worse than our government.

I lived in MO. We had a really bad I've storm in 07. My folks' street didn't get power back for 14 days. Thank goodness for generators, gas fireplace, and a well that didn't freeze.

Where in Maine are you?

We are at the very southern part, practically Portsmouth NH. We have a generator 🙏🏼 but have heard that only about 300 people have power in the area right now.

We still don’t have cable though but I’m ok with that

Remember the wind storm of '17? My family was out for a week and a half. Shits rough but you'll get by.

Pine Tree Power would have oversight from the Maine Public Utilities Commission. You can't cancel your electric service any differently now than you could under public power, so that's not an argument for private ownership. You sound privileged to have an HR team that will fight for you.

Is there any evidence of that based on the experiences of the many consumer owned utilities in Maine and elsewhere?

The evidence for cost of delivery in Maine, and across the nation, directly correlates to the number of trees, the distance of overhead wires, and the number of customers. I don't have the PowerPoint with me but I'm sure you can find similar data from across the country that shows this information. Maine's consumer owned utilities are in more densely packed regions of the state, or in areas (I think Van Buren has one?) Where the number of trees are fewer due to agriculture uses.

The evidence for ability to respond to down times is basic logic which applies to anyone with experience working for very large companies and very small companies, and a point that line workers have made throughout this debate. It's a lot easier to react to emergencies when you have a bigger pool of people who's job it is to react to those emergencies.

Do you even live in Maine? The DMV is not an issue here

Also you're supposed to take them out & run them for about 15-20 minutes every 2-3 months. And use fuel stabilizer and or ethanol free gas A.K.A (Recreational fuel - 90 octane) and you should be good.

Also in York County...going on 36 hours without power now. At least 50 households in our neighborhood are still out. CMP trucks have been up and down our street at least twice today and they're still "assessing." We were fortunate enough to buy the last generator at Home D after our 10yo generator decided, yesterday, to give up the ghost. Hoping CMP gets their assessment back and sorted before we run out of gas tomorrow morning.

> The evidence for ability to respond to down times is basic logic

Logic is not evidence; it's just the basis of hypotheses. Anyway, if we take over CMP Connecticut and the rest of the country can follow our lead. What's illogical is organizing society's needs based on private ownership and profit.

I was born and raised in Indiana for 40 years trimming the trees is something the electric company came by and did every single year

Propane your friend.

So lets have the government run the power company….. “its civilians doing it” yeah all appointed by politicians… so yeah the government will run the power company. It will not be cheaper, it will be run worse, and the service will get MUCH worse. Remember, the government could not run a whore house successfully, what makes you think they can get a power grid and generation facilities done properly?

"Do you like private ownership or not" is the real question that people will be asked when they vote in November, as well as "are you pissed at CMP?"

As we push forward, the reality is the bill is probably going to pass. These questions do not deal with the reality that switching management and ownership may not have all the positive impacts we are hoping for due to the fact power so difficult to deliver in a rural state.

While I'm not trying to nay-say the transfer of power, what is lacking from the conversation is an earnest discussion of what the benefits of switching to consumer owned really will be, how long the transition will be, where there are real concerns etc. etc. etc. so that the transition can be as helpful as possible to consumers.

I mean

Historically this has been untrue with consumer owned utilities

but fearmongering is cool

> what the benefits of switching to consumer owned really will be

We will have more control.

Every other benefit can come from that.

Two is one and one is none.

Get the part number and order a spare online, hang it in your garage. And some shear pins.

I'm not versed in the vagaries of state PUC rules, but most have a list of allowable expenses for inclusion in the "cost to deliver" electricity rates. In Oregon they can expense maintenance of right of ways, but it's a fixed amount. Like, the total for maintenance is capped, and how much they do is proportional to the cost per mile. They also have to maintain the entire network, and not just the easy bits. Indiana might be different, as might Maine. I do know CMP hires local ROW maintenance crews.

Reminds me of my sump pump. That's officially double backed up.

I guess for heat/cooking. A wood stove and some wood is good for a single backup.

Idk what happened to OPs generator and i'm saying this is it... but I feel like that's a thing where folks get into trouble, just like not running them every so often and changing oil every year.

Having a generator or battery storage is the solution, or candles and wood stoves.

No need to cut down millions of trees.

Yeah, you got me. The Maine State government is awesomely run.

Jet boil and french press means coffee even when the powers out

Where I used to live in Maryland we had a customer owned electric company. As far as I know they still exist. I've been on Maine since 2010 and CMP sucks

Wait, you want the people who are whining online about how all their problems are someone else's fault to demonstrate personal responsibility? Do you know what country you live in?

Seems like it would be easier, and more effective, just to take their internet away.

When the solution to an inconvenience or lack of planning is to decimate a million trees, it’s time to reassess. These are the same people who buy stainless steel straws… instead of just not using a straw

You realize I'm not suggesting we do this right? My point is that even the "foolproof" solution would not appease the folks here whining about how self preservation isn't their responsibility. Obviously they should be prepared or suck it up and STFU.

Also FWIW, our entire presence in this state required the "decimation of millions of trees". So as long as you're living in a wood house, in a lumber state, you may want to check how much toity you've got in your hoity there...

Also, "decimate" mean "to reduce by ten percent".

I was expounding on what you said, actually.

The construction of my house in 1947 probably required 10-20 mature trees… so two trees a decade. I’m well aware of the environmental footprint there, which is why I try to preserve the structure by maintaining it as close to it’s original form as possible. Also aware of the fact that I burn 2 cords of wood a year for heat, which I harvest sustainably from the woodlot on my property that I’m fortunate to own and care for.

And I’m aware that forests have been decimated in the past and are at a tipping point now that requires a different way of thinking than was historically done. The decimation I’m talking about is the scenario where shade-providing, aesthetically important street trees are removed to save people the inconvenience of an occasional power outage.

Sorry I just can't get on board with the constant conspiratorial thinking that CMP punished us for voting against the corridor -- I'm not trying to defend them either but that's just a little too tinfoil hat for me. Legally they can't -- despite what we think they are held to certain standards and the PUC has to approve rate hikes (I know, I know "the PUC is in bed with CMP" etc) so it would probably do us all a lot better to think about this situation a little more rationally.

You lost me at "aesthetically important". If people are too inconvenienced by power outages I say we tear their houses down and send 'em packing to some nice urban community out west.

Also, if you think that "10-20 mature trees" is the only casualty of your developed residential lot I don't think you fully understand what this place looked like prior to European colonization.

Let's just agree that the people complaining about CMP are fucking insufferable and of limited value to our species moving forward.

I hate that these ballot issues get turned into emotional ones "are you mad at CMP?" is how people will vote which should be irrelevant. Also, quite frankly, I have a feeling most Mainers don't give a shit whether or not they own the means of production. Most people just want to see lower rates at the end of the day. Is Pine Tree Power gonna give us that? I don't feel optimistic about it, personally, and I think everyone underestimates the total cost as well as the time the transfer will take, as there's a 100% chance it will end up in the courts. It kind of feels like a lose lose situation all around which makes me feel like our best bet is trying to get the PUC to be a little more functional as a regulatory body so that we can work with CMP to keep things working for everyone. But I am probably alone in this and can now look forward to people yelling at me for being some CMP shill or something. Which brings me back to my first point... we have got to remove our emotions from the equation and think logically and practically. Not that that will EVER happen, but it sure would be nice.

Right??? It's like how fucking dare you have a functioning understanding of our government and request the public utilities commission do it's job instead of screaming into the sky about having a co-operative owned by 1.5M people - especially when this is a purple state and the results of removing a nonpartisan commission of professionals would be catastrophic if we went through 4-12 years of far-right ruling to completely defund the grid (looking at you, Texas).

It's like saying the only option to cleaning out a messy garage is to burn it down and build new.

Couldn't have said it better myself. And you make a great point about the purpleness of this state. I love the idea of revolution, of trying something new in theory... but in practice? People need to get real. Let's organize the garage.

I bet I understand what colonization did to this continent much better than you think I do

Trees will still need trimming, natural gas will still be gouging us and we will then be on the hook for $10B plus in debt.

Cool! Maybe you'd like to come give a presentation to my first nations community?

So much clout.

Guess there’s no way I could know anything about the subject.

Then use your words. Don't claim that 10-20 trees +/- a cord is the only impact for your lot... That was an asinine assertion that undermined anything else you had to say on the matter.

I didn’t realize you expected a full encyclopedic entry on the effects of colonization on the forests, waterways, and indigenous peoples of the northeast area of the North American continent… you insufferable, know-it-all, windbag. I’ll try harder next time… to avoid you.

I asked Versant to address branches leaning on a line. They are evil. They stated the only reason they would come out is if the tree was down and on the line. They are evil.

Cool.

In the future, feel free to expound sand if you have nothing intelligent to offer.

You southies are tiresome...

That's a pretty low bar for "evil"... I guess we really are "post-truth" where everyone's feelings trump reality...

All utilities have multi-year maintenance schedules and limited resources. Can you imagine if they had to push their maintenance schedule for EVERY layperson homeowner who called in with a "totally definitely serious and immediately urgent concern"? There are branches on lines fucking everywhere and only a small percentage of those lead to outages, and an even smaller percentage to bodily harm.

What's your hypothesis here? You think the people they hire don't know what their doing or how to assess risk as well as you? Do you think the company WANTS outages and infrastructure damage they will need to pay for? Or do you think they just get off on the thought of YOU being in the dark for a few hours?

Get over yourself...

How will Public Power reduce outages? When have you seen anything in the government sector efficiently?

https://news.yahoo.com/the-campaign-to-ban-gas-stoves-is-heating-up-215656354.html

Do you live in New York City?