Maine is a beautiful state full of many great people and natural wonders. We all know and recognize that. However, two foreign corporations continue to fail to recognize that. Central Maine Power Company, the most disliked public utility in the country, is one of those corporations, and it is attempting to construct a new electrical transmission line to deliver power to Massachusetts, and doing so will put all of Maine’s iconic wilderness at risk.
Flagstaff was established in 1775 it became a vibrant town in the early years of Maine. However, in 1940 people were ripped from their homes so the town could be burned down and flooded for the construction of a hydroelectric dam.
By Allowing CMP to construct a transmission line through the North Woods for Massachusetts’ use, will be just the beginning to use Maine for profit. We simply cannot allow foreign companies to put profits before Maine like what happened to Flagstaff.
This November, Maine voters will have the power to reject CMP’s transmission line and protect our natural environment by voting YES.
Marianne Ayotte
Moxie Gore Township
It isn’t like CMP had to twist arms to get the few hundred or so people living in Flagstaff to move, they were dirt poor, CMP comes knocking offering 70 cents on the dollar for their property. CMP then built a dam that would supply power to tens of thousands of people, and which the reservoir from said dam, today fuels a tourist industry and provides the area with much needed income…and you say that’s a bad thing…really? You NIMBY people need to get with the program. 2/3rds of Maine’s power comes from out of state, carried by transmission lines that run behind people’s houses, cross rivers etc, yet somebody wants to run a power line through a working forest to help another state meet its power demands, and you bawk at it…sorry, that is not something you get to do while enjoying the power from out of state.
Vote YES in November and Sing Along..
Na na na na..
Na na na na..
Hey Hey..
Good Bye!!
NO!! CORRIDOR.
Vote “””YES”””
Send Em Packing.
Everything Is Beautiful.
Hrtlss Bstrd. Question, does Maine get power from out of state? Where did you find that information?
@Heartless
If you were nearly as correct and powerful as you boast, there would be no vote and the few like you would rule without care of others.
I can see positions on both sides that portray merit but this is a choice the voters of Maine get to make not some self described heartless one. That said…let’s wait for the vote!
The biggest threat to our environment are the fossil fuel fired power plants that dominate our energy market. When New England lawmakers sought a solution to this problem the options available to them were slowly whittled down to the plan at the center of this discussion. Hydroelectricity is the only clean energy source currently capable of replacing a sizable portion of that electricity produced by fossil fuels.
While you may not like that 14 miles of new power line will have to be installed to make that happen, the impact is small when compared to what fossil fuels now have. The other 130 miles of power line that will be run along existing corridor will have even less impact, but even if this did require 143 miles of entirely new corridor the project would still reduce the harm now done by fossil fuels power plants.
I feel that many are losing sight of the forest for the trees here. They’re so focused on what construction will do they’ve failed to consider how much damage our forests will be spared when they reduce fossil fuel emissions. As for the hydroelectric facilities, they’re not going anywhere. Use them or not they’ve had whatever impact they’re going to have.
I believe HB is referring to data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration which shows that Maine received a majority of its energy from Canada. This arrives as electricity along transmission lines that current connect us to New Brunswick and as natural gas which is then converted to electricity in state. For those interested in doing the math you can find that information here https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=ME
To keep Maine’s environment healthy today and in years to come, we need to act now and collectively to reduce what is putting us all at risk: dependence on fossil fuels. The burning of oil and gas is warming the planet every day and threatening ecosystems. THAT’s what is at risk and what urgently needs to be recognized in this debate. The NECEC project is a significant and immediate response to cut greenhouse gas emissions by bringing more clean energy to the region.
Let’s also make it clear that the power is not just for Massachusetts. In addition to drawing millions in funding and investments to Maine, creating 1,600 jobs in the state and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Hydro-Québec committed to provide Maine with 500,000 megawatthours of guaranteed renewable hydropower at a reduced price. This means that the wholesale electricity price in Maine will be cut by US$4/megawatthour for 20 years. Some of the most polluting fossil-fuelled power generators in Maine, Calpine and Vistra, are fighting this clean energy project and admitted that the corridor will lower energy market prices enough to hurt their profits. Their involvement against the project is a warning sign – and an ominous one. Their objective is to raise your prices and burn more dirty fossil fuel. https://www.mainepublic.org/post/natural-gas-electricity-generators-form-pac-fight-cmps-proposed-transmission-project
Is that your choice for Maine’s environment?
NIMBY!
Those interested in understanding how adding 1200 MWh more hydroelectric capacity will change New England’s energy market may be interested in this overview published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration:
https://www.eia.gov/dashboard/newengland/overview
Here you’ll find that natural gas, which you’ll find is essentially methane should you choose to look, is used to generate most of our power. The problem with this is that natural leaks from every point along the supply line and so contributes substantially to global warming and climate change, which according to experts poses the greatest threat to our forests. Today natural gas produced 15,000 MWh dwarfing the 1,700 MWh generated by hydroelectric facilities.
Those of you who are concerned with our environment should look carefully at data like this because it shows just how far we’ll have to go to save it from fossil fuel driven climate change. That close look should make it clear that all a number of alternatives will have to be supported if we are to significantly reduce our use of natural gas. Those who prefer solar generation need not fear supporting hydroelectric projects because they will definitely do less damage than natural gas and leave plenty of space for solar generation to grow.
Tom, You do know that Emera is a Canadian company whose power which is sold to Maine customers is generated in New Brunswick. NextEra, another electricity producer that sells power to Maine customers, does so through Seabrook nuclear power plant, Seabrook is in New Hampshire. BTW the Calpine plant in Westbrook, has its gas piped in, so technically not a power resource of Maine as its power isn’t generated by a Maine natural resource, now were it Maine supplied natural gas, that would be different. So in actuality, the power produced wholly by Maine is about 27% of our total usage, hydro and biomass being the two major sources of that power, the TransCanada owned wind farms contribute very little, about 2%.
Allvotescount, Um what are you voting on again, do you even know?
HB, thank you for your analysis. Here is what I found out. It’s because of imports from New Brunswick into New England that go through Maine.
According the info I obtain Maine is a net exporter of electricity.
Perhaps best way to support my claim is probably the 2019 RSP (posted here: https://www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2019/10/rsp19_final.docx
Total Generation in Maine in 2019: Table 4-9 page 70: Summer rating is 3067 MW
Total Load in Maine: Table 3-1 page 38: 50-50 peak for 2019 = 2116 MW
Surplus today = 3067 – 2116 = 951 MW. That makes Maine an net exporter of electricity.
This doesn’t include power coming in from New Brunswick (or NECEC) – just native Maine generation.
Do you have other numbers?
Jay, I too look at the site you suggested and followed up. The power you describe passes through Maine… Do have data that says it stays in Maine?
Jay. You continue to state just 14 miles of new powerline will need to be constructed. Where are you coming up with that figure? Its false. From Beattie to Moxie, no matter how you slice it, is far more than 14 miles…even in a straight line.
To: Marianne Ayotte
Moxie Gore Township
Where was all this opposition and hatred when the wind tower project was going thru?.
That project single handedly wrecked the scenic views and vistas that I enjoyed as a young lad, fishing and hunting the woods of Maine.
Coincidentally they will never return the (public) money invested in them.
Your statement is pretty strong, ” Central Maine Power Company, the most disliked public utility in the country”
Apparently all CMP workers should quit their jobs and pick up a picket sign.
I am not saying whether I am ‘for’ or ‘against’ the corridor, I’ll let you decide how I should vote i guess…
I will say you could go a little easier on the employees that keep your lights on.
Garold Haines
Avon Heights
Workin mainah (Garold) cmp is the worst in the country look it up. As for picketing I suspect you guys won’t do that until you want another raise per usual !! Since you are an employee I wouldn’t recommend you vote against your employer even though your cushy union might save you from being fired.
Hold, I’ve been using that 14 mile figure since reading it in a statement a few months ago. Looks like that has been updated to 53 miles of new high voltage line. This is the section that will connect existing high voltage lines in The Forks to a line that will cross the border at Beattie Township.
Homer, check out references 39 and 40. According to those references Northern Maine is not connected to the grid that serves the rest the state. As such the transmission lines connecting them to New Brunswick’s grid could not be passed through the state. The sole purpose of those lines is to deliver electricity generated in New Brunswick to Northern Maine.
Tom, those transmission lines that transmit electricity from Keswick, NB and Point Lepreau, NB tie into our electric grid at multiple locations. Once this happens it’s impossible to distinguish between electricity produced here and in Canada so it is inaccurate to suggest that it all leaves the state. These facilities add reliability to our grid and have done so far longer than those recently constructed natural gas facilities funding the opposition. By the way, those facilities are using natural gas imported from Canada directly and from a New Hampshire based source that received it from Canada to generate power, so it too is technically imported.
Note: The transmission lines connecting Northern Maine to Canada do not connect to the ISO-NE grid as those transmission lines running from Keswick, NB and Point Lepreau do, so all of those Canadian energy imports are without question utilized by Maine.
If you’re opposed to foreign sources of power the first you’ll want to cut off are those which utilize natural gas to generate it, as most of those energy dollars spent to acquire natural gas cross the Atlantic Ocean and enter economies with few ties to our own. Those energy dollars used to acquire electricity from Hydro Quebec are far more likely to reenter our economy as they are sent to economies with strong ties to our own.
Jay. Just goes to show how uninformed you, and many, are. Its always been 53 miles. Clearly youve never even bothered to look at a map let alone visit the area this will go through. It will not “connect” to existing powerlines at Moxie. That is just where the existing corridor will begin to be widened to accept this new line all the way to Lewiston.
Hydro-Quebec,
Go home……