Letter to the Editor: What is Hydro-Quebec?

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What is Hydro-Quebec (see https://www.hydroquebec.com/international/en/investments/)?

The spokesperson for Hydro-Quebec has had letters to the editor published in several Maine newspapers to promote the New England Clean Energy Connect project and to criticize Mainers who oppose the NECEC. It is insulting to have the spokesperson for a foreign corporation telling Maine people what is best for them. Especially when the NECEC will increase profit for Hydro-Quebec by $10 billion dollars.

Hydro-Quebec was established in April 1944 by the government of Quebec for the purpose of investing in hydro-electric projects for the benefit of the Province of Quebec. This event occurred before most people even knew what the words, climate change, meant.

Hydro-Quebec is not in the business of fighting climate change. It is in the business of selling hydro power for profit. None of the investment principles for Hydro-Quebec mention climate change. One of its investment principles is to double revenue by 2030. It must sell hydro power in the lucrative U.S. market, beginning with energy contracts with three Massachusetts utilities, thus its support for the NECEC.

Hydro-Quebec is the second largest corporation in Canada with assets of $78.6 billion dollars (CAD). It averages $2.9 billion (CAD) in net profit. When the spokesperson for Hydro-Quebec says that the NECEC will provide $258 million to Maine, remember that any monetary benefit would be spread over 40 years; and, that the environment, natural resources and economy of Maine’s western mountains and public reserved land, that will be destroyed by the NECEC, are worth at least 100 times that number.

Hydro-Quebec has destroyed the forests and environment of the Province of Quebec for the sake of profit. Now, they want to come to Maine to destroy our forests and environment.

John R. Nicholas
Winthrop

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27 Comments

  1. You forgot to mention that the money generated by HQ, pays for schooling, universal healthcare, maintains infrastructure and public transportation, and keeps the taxes relatively low, everybody in Quebec benefits from those things.

  2. HB
    They could up their “offer” 20 fold and actually make a positive difference in the Maine economy,,,,
    But No…
    They started out disrespecting us and our dimwitted Gov went along with it, to plug a car into a stupid charging station…Duh.
    And they will ALWAYS disrespect us.
    Just Like CMP does with their Dead Last In The Nation Customer Service.

    This is a Bad Deal For Maine.
    We Deserve Much Better.

    No Corridor.

  3. Hrtlss Bstrd,
    You may be accurate about the benefits in Quebec. But $258 million spread over 40 years here in Maine, where you live, pays little. Mainers could gain more by collecting bottles and cans on the roadside. Think of the bonus of extra beer cans thrown out the windows of the temporary workers from out of state for 1-2 years!

    Make sure you are registered to vote! You can do it absentee if you are afraid of people from away, Like HQ, Iberdrola, and the good folks from MA, causing you any issue.

    I will risk it to vote this joke down in person.

  4. Hrtlss,

    Perhaps you have forgotten that you pointed out just a few days ago that this for profit merchant line would not benefit but a very few people in the state of Maine.
    Which is one of the points Mr. Nicholas conveyed in his factual letter.

    And l can’t speak for everyone else but…
    I’m not interested in paying for Quebec’s universal healthcare, nor the maintenance of Quebec’s infrastructure. That goes ditto for their public transportation and lowered taxes that the people of QUEBEC benefit from.

    I don’t want to stand “side by side” with Quebec.
    Much less support it….

  5. HB – well done! Yes, you are absolutely correct – everything you mentioned IS FOR QUEBEC. Is there a benefit to Maine? Answer = NOPE

    Got to hand it to you – you went right straight to the core of the problem. Thanks man, great job.

  6. Hrtlss…you’ve been to Canada, no? You feel taxes there are “low”? I encourage you to actually speak to a canadian before posting such jokes. Now, if we were talking $258M PER YEAR for Maine, funneled directly to education, healthcare, or our roads you’d have my attention. But no, our guvnah seems to think less than $6.5M per year is good’nuff. MA was ready to pull the trigger at $1.6B in NH, and Mills thinks she hit a homerun negotiating a $1.4B deal for Maine. Maybe I should brush up on my Lib math. Dollars to doughnuts we never actually see half of that money after CMP sues us for not letting “The Baby” have what it wants.

  7. In the fight against Climate Change we will have to make difficult choices, choices that can not be made by simply pointing out that energy companies are for profit ventures and that some damage is done to construct the utilities they create in order to produce the power they sell.

    Making good decisions in the fight against Climate Change means weighing one viable approach against another, not tearing into one while ignoring the other as is the case with all those emotionally driven to defeat one option or another.

    We are a very long way from generating enough power with wind or solar energy to curb the use of fossil fuels in New England as much as hydroelectric facilities currently in existence can. That’s just a fact.

    Time is not our friend in the fight against Climate Change. We long ago crossed the 400ppm CO2 threshold that marked the point of no return for certain changes. The goalpost was moved because we can still prevent some changes, not because the changes now baked in aren’t so bad. That’s another fact.

    Canada and the United States have worked together to make life in North America what it is today. We’ve fought side by side in more wars than I care to list and have used our collective intelligence to make space travel a reality. This notion that we should treat Canada or Canadian industry as we would an adversary is therefore foolish. Quebec Hydro is a for profit company and it wants this contract because it stands increase those profits, not because the company has it out for Mainers.

    Scientists working for the states of Massachusetts and Maine have thoroughly assessed this project and determined it to be our best option right now. The states went to Quebec Hydro in order to meet CO2 reduction mandates. That fact seems to be lost on some.

    Now, I’d like to see an honest discussion of our options here. God knows I’ve seen enough hyperbole. That might make arguments interesting but it doesn’t inform anyone.

  8. I misspoke on one point. Quebec Hydro is not a for profit company but a public utility. That doesn’t make the organization any more sinister however.

    The letter I’m addressing here on Daily Bulldog was written by someone who wanted to question Quebec Hydro’s motives, as if they had come to New England with an idea that actually originated here. That’s a little like asking the pizza delivery person what their doing at your door when they show up with the pizza you ordered.

  9. I misspoke on one point. Quebec Hydro is not a for profit company but a public utility. That doesn’t make the organization any more sinister however.

    The letter I’m addressing here on Daily Bulldog was written by someone who wanted to question Quebec Hydro’s motives, as if they had come to New England with an idea that actually originated here. That’s a little like asking the pizza delivery person what they’re doing at your door when they show up with the pizza you ordered.

  10. I have heard and read about how greedy CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola and Hydro Quebec appear to be…and yet, pretty much everything from every naysayer I hear and read says, more, more, more, gimme more, that sounds awfully greedy to me. Somehow some people in Maine feel entitled to money from something that they don’t own any part of, that’s like your neighbor selling his car to make ends meet and you demanding a quarter of the money because he’s your neighbor and owes you for the privilege of being such.

    Feel free to vote, it’s your right, it won’t do any good though, what the “people” say and what the law says are two different things. The question on the ballot amounts to nothing more than a statewide poll question. Think of the NECEC as an inevitability.

  11. This also bares repeating:

    What damage was done to construct Quebec Hydro’s facilities has been done. In order to produce the same power by other means more damage would have to be done. So to make an honest assessment we need to compare the impact of the new transmission corridor with the alternatives.

    The footprint required to produce as much energy through solar and/or wind generation would easily do this much damage to the environment. To install the number of solar panels required to produce that much electricity we would have surrender productive farmland to it along with forested lands between those facilities and current transmission lines. The footprint is so substantial this approach would easily double the damages long ago done to construct the Quebec Hydro facilities. Install wind turbines on land and we’re talking about leveling mountaintops for the turbines and carving a path through forests for transmission. Install them offshore and we destroy critical marine habitats.

    NECEC is the best option we have now. That may change in the future, but so will the impact of the fossil fuels emissions we’d leave in place while waiting for them. Even then we’d have to add the impact done to construct these facilities to the impact done to construct the Quebec Hydro facilities and the impact done by fossil fuels while we wait for them to come online in order to make an honest assessment of the cost of waiting.

  12. To HB…You’re right. Our present system is that our laws support this project and favor the corporation. The only voice citizens have is through the people they elect and ultimately through the laws those people pass. When a corporation decides on a project, as long as they meet all the laws, there is little to nothing to stop them. And so, such as in this case, even when 20+ towns directly affected by the project have voted in opposition… it doesn’t count. How can such a system be okay where corporate rights outweigh everyone else’s? At least with the referendum citizens’ voices will be heard. Hopefully they will be heeded.

  13. Hi Jay,

    You make a very good point concerning the destructive footprint of solar and wind generation.
    I’d like to point out that Hydro-Québec stands side by side with Iberdrola, a Spanish corporation that owns AVANGRID, who owns CMP, the company who is trying to build this project.

    Iberdrola is the number one producer of wind power in the world. When l asked a CMP spokesperson a year back if the CMP Corridor could be used as a transmission of wind power he stated, “yes, but it would (the line) have to be upgraded and that would be expensive.”

    If Hydro-Québec and their partners are willing to spend millions on defeating a Citizens Referendum would they not be willing to spend more money to upgrade the Corridor, so they can add too the billions they’ll be making it the Corridor goes through? What happens to those beautiful mountain tops located in and around the Corridor then?

    Again, lberdrola is the number one producer of wind power. Let that sink in….

  14. False…the best option Massachusetts had was Cape Wind. But they didnt want to look at it. Im not 100% against NECEC, but i want to see MA make a bit more effort in this “climate change fight”, within their own borders, before they jam this down our throats. MA has 5x the population of Maine, and currently produces far less renewable energy ME does. Effort on their part at home eases my FU.

  15. And, no hrtlss…this isnt a hands out “gimme gimme”. This is like your neighbor buliding a $1B water bottling plant and getting a TIF deal…and your taxes dont go down…BUT your power bill goes up. If you’re going to make an analogy, at least make it apples to apples. Not apples to snowblowers.

  16. Hold the phone, Yes, yes I have been to Canada numerous times over the years, hunting, fishing, even been prospecting a few times, compared to us, yes Canada has high taxes, compared to Canada, Quebec has the lowest. Though I tend not to compare foreign countries to us, because foreign countries aren’t us nor are we them. But out of pure speculation on my part, that if the US government did pay for the amount of programs that the Canadian government pays for, our taxes would be considerably higher and may be comparable were as currently they are not.

  17. Jay this corridor is just the beginning. Once it is in it opens the door to more wind turbines along the route. That has already been stated in the past. One problem is if we give them an inch they want a mile. When will Mass ever have enough power at Maine’s expense ? They told us to piss off when we wanted a natural gas pipeline but we are just supposed to bow down and let them do the same thing to Maine they didn’t want ? To look at some line going through our beautiful land ? Let Mass figure out how to fix their problems by putting up some turbines along their hilltops they get just as much wind as we do. We have flattened enough mountains and now we are going to be looking at solar panels all along rte. 2. Enough is Enough!!!!

  18. Awww,

    Not that natural gas (methane) is a great alternative, but the state did attempt to install another pipeline in 2017. To the state’s surprise the contractor chose to withdraw itself from the federal permitting process at the last minute. The northern counties weren’t too upset by that.

    Nearly every energy project suffers the consequences of NIMBY. The Cape wind project was never a viable option for New England because of it, and I dare say solar would meet similar resistance. Someone once said we could produce all the power we needed if we just installed solar panels on every home in Maine. Could you imagine how many Mainers would absolutely refuse to allow that either for fear it would lead to a leaky roof or because they simply don’t want solar panels all over them?

    I’d like to see someone estimate the square footage required to produce the energy in question via solar panel. I think that figure would be every bit as staggering as the estimated cost of such a project. Either of those two items could easily erode support for such a proposal. Regardless, if solar is going to be touted as an alternative these figures should be presented.

  19. @Jay you asked for options, here are a few:

    1. HQ could improve their existing DC power line to MA and funnel all of the new power through that route.

    2. HQ could accept the already permitted route through VT. It is more expensive than the proposed NECEC, but there are no legal or legislative challenges to this route.

    3. HQ and MA could work with NY state to piggyback a proposed line from HQ to New York City. The line to MA could cut through their western forests, and impact the states that want the power.

    Any of these options would be better than trying to force this proposal on Mainers.

  20. Using data published on the CIANBRO Solar Farm in Pittsfield, which is capable of generating 10 megawatts AC at peak generation, it appears that a solar project capable of producing the 1200 megawatts to be drawn from Quebec Hydro would impact 14,000 acres as opposed to the 900 acres to be affected by the NECEC. That certainly doesn’t make solar sound like a great option for those already concerned with the impact a simple transmission line will have.

  21. By the way, according to the information I was able to find on the Pittsfield Solar Farm it cost upwards of $20 million to establish a facility which produces only 10 megawatts. This suggests it could cost upwards of $2.4 billion to establish a solar array capable of generating the 1200 megawatts Quebec Hydro is contracted to provide. You know that someone would be the taxpayer.

    So, opt for solar and you cost taxpayers a share of $2.4 billion. Opt for hydroelectricity and you gift taxpayers a share of $330 million. I know which I support, largely because I know it will be a long time before any private or public entity, or combination thereof, will be willing to invest $2.4 billion to fund the solar alternative.

  22. Making Massachusetts and Hydro Quebec chose a route for this power line that makes sense is the best option.

    Sure, the power from this project is entering the New England electric grid; however, Massachusetts is going to REDUCE the electricity produced in their state. The bulk of this new electricity will be consumed in MA, not in Maine. Maine will see very little benefits from this project.

    There is a fourth option that I did not mention earlier, Maine could build a massive hydro-dam in our state. Since these projects are being considered green, no one should object to our state being the source of this electricity.

  23. Its far from a strait line from the source in Quebec to the delivery point in Massachusetts. So why are we swooping and circling through the best trout habitat and viewsheds in the Eastern United States to get from point A to point B? Maximum profits for foreign companies. At what cost? Maine’s iconic brand, insults to the environment and long term job losses in recreational tourism and biomass industries. In addition to suing us to keep us from having a say, these foreign companies have currently spent over 17 million dollars to “buy” the Maine referendum. Have they bought your vote yet? Say no, by voting YES this fall to kill this ugly project.

  24. Having not read all of these posts except the first three.
    If they want the power line , AFTER they pay for the land , or Pay a FAIR LEASE for it for as long as the line is there , WE, people who live in all the counties it runs through, gets FREE FREE FREE Electricity as long as that line is up for every residential address , PERIOD.

  25. I don’t care if Hydro Quebec makes money selling hydro electric power….I’m guessing that most of you complaining here would prefer nuclear power plants to continue to supply our country? Oh, how quickly people forget.

  26. YES YES YES !!
    TO NUCLEAR POWER!!!
    YES YES YES!!

    Let’s come to our senses and build a New Maine Yankee.
    The only thing wrong with the old one was it got old.
    BUILD IT PLEASE!!
    YES!!

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