I had thought the people of Maine already decided the fate of the Central Maine Power corridor, but I was wrong. I guess the views of voters don’t matter to CMP’s parent company, which is bankrolling efforts to effectively overturn the will of the people with high-powered legalese.
It would have been nice if it had used its money to provide some relief on our monthly electricity bills from CMP. Maybe if it had done that, it’d get some sympathy from me and other Mainers. But since its focus is on its bottom line, not ours, I think it’s important for us to remember why we fought to oppose the corridor, even as Avangrid fights us now in court.
The corridor would create a new 53-mile long gash through a previously undeveloped Maine North Woods forest, and widen another 90-plus miles through hundreds of wetlands and more than 100 streams. This would destroy some of our state’s most scenic views, hurt the deer, brook trout and waterfowl populations and diminish the economic benefits our wilderness and wildlife provide our state. And for practically nothing, as we know sending hydropower to Massachusetts instead of Quebec will do nothing to reduce climate change, and the supposed effect on our electricity rates is so negligible it might as well count as nothing at all.
I hope we won’t forget why we Mainers voted how we did, in case we are ever called to again.
Bennett Allen
Buxton
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