Letter to the Editor: CMP trashes Maine volunteers in its deceptive new ad

2 mins read

A new ad running on Maine airwaves right now grossly ignores the hundreds of Maine volunteers (myself and my father included) who are gathering signatures to place the ‘clean energy’ corridor on the ballot to allow Maine voters to decide on this contentious project. While money is being spent on both sides, CMP and its parent company, Hydro-Quebec, have spent a record $20 million to flood us with disinformation.

They tell us the corridor will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It won’t, and they hired an army of lobbyists to kill Senator Carson’s bill to keep Mainers from finding that out. They tell us it will reduce our electricity bills–but they don’t tell us it would be mere pennies per month while CMP makes $5 million per month and Hydro-Quebec makes $41 million per month. They tell us it will create jobs without telling us these are mostly temporary and that they will also displace forest industry jobs. They brazenly tell us that opponents of slashing through western Maine are against clean energy. Tell that to the Forest Ecology Network, Appalachian Mountain Club, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, and Sierra Club Maine, who all oppose the corridor.

Now they tell us to beware of all those people asking you for your signature. Yes, be afraid of those Mainers who love our state, who love our environment, and who would love for you to decide whether you want this gash through one of the last undeveloped havens in the eastern United States–all for ‘benefits’ that will never be realized.

Those Maine volunteers are some scary people, or at least they are to CMP, which doesn’t seem to have any volunteers on its side. CMP knows it’s a bad deal, and they know if the citizens get to decide, they will lose.

Garrett Murch
Mount Vernon

Print Friendly, PDF & Email