CMP’s desperate gambit doesn’t change that
Statement of Dylan Voorhees, Clean Energy Director, Natural Resources Council of Maine
“In a desperate gambit to try to salvage its controversial power line proposal, Central Maine Power (CMP) today acknowledged that its proposed 145-mile transmission line across Maine would cause significant harm to the Kennebec Gorge. But this small change in the project fails to address the project’s many other flaws, including its failure to actually reduce climate-disrupting pollution, its harm to renewable energy development in Maine, the damage a new permanent transmission line would cause to fish and wildlife habitat across 53 miles of Maine’s North Woods, and the lack of benefits to Maine people.
“This project is just as flawed today as it was yesterday, when the Public Utilities Commission heard blistering public opposition to CMP’s plan. At last night’s PUC public hearing, 95% of those who spoke or submitted testimony voiced opposition to the proposal.
“We now know with even greater certainty than ever that CMP’s proposed transmission line would do nothing to reduce climate-disrupting pollution, despite CMP’s false statements. A detailed analysis released yesterday demonstrates that Hydro-Quebec will not build new clean power sources to generate power for Massachusetts ratepayers, and likely instead will simply use this opportunity to purchase cheap power from other sources and sell it for a premium to Massachusetts. Maine is simply a piece of real estate across which CMP wants to build an expensive extension cord so that both it and Hydro-Quebec can profit.
“As each town retracts its support for this project or each new business or political leader announces their opposition, it becomes clearer that Maine does not want this project.
“This project is carefully designed to maximize profits for CMP and Hydro-Quebec, but it remains a bad deal for Maine. Burying a very short segment of the line under the Kennebec Gorge simply brings more attention to the project’s many flaws, which collectively should be grounds for its rejection by the state agencies responsible for reviewing it.”
