Mass. becomes dirty word in Maine referendum fight

Bay State hydro deal irks those opposed to power line

Bruce Mohl Jul 7, 2020

CORPORATE SURROGATES for Massachusetts have spent close to $17 million so far battling a referendum question in Maine that seeks to block the importation of hydroelectricity from Quebec using a power line running through wilderness areas in the western part of the state.

The referendum battle is in some ways the dark underbelly of a push for clean energy in Massachusetts. Two years ago, after regulators in New Hampshire nixed a similar power line running through the White Mountains, Massachusetts struck a deal with a Maine utility and Hydro-Quebec to run a 145-mile transmission line from the Quebec border down to Lewiston, where it would feed into the regional power grid.

The deal would give Massachusetts relatively cheap renewable energy while leaving all of the environmental impact in Maine. Pete Didisheim, advocacy director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said many residents in his state are seething with anger at how Massachusetts could force this unwanted project on them.

“The Massachusetts component of this project really gets in people’s craw,” Didisheim said. “We’re just the landscape across which this extension cord will go.”

Didisheim said the three utilities who negotiated the contract on behalf of the state of Massachusetts should have gone with a similar proposal in Vermont that would have run the power line from Quebec underneath Lake Champlain and underground where it came ashore. Didisheim said the three Massachusetts utilities, with the blessing of the Baker administration, went with the cheaper option running the power line above ground in Maine.

The power line through Maine won a key permit from the Maine Public Utilities Commission in May 2019, a decision that was upheld this year on an appeal to the courts. The referendum question seeks to overturn the commission’s decision and deny the permit.

The key players behind the project are Central Maine Power, a utility owned by Avangrid Renewables, which in turn is owned by a Spanish company, and Hydro-Quebec, a utility owned by the province of Quebec. A group calling itself Clean Energy Matters has spent $10.5 million to back the project and defeat the referendum – with almost all the money coming from Avangrid and Central Maine Power. A second group, called Hydro-Quebec Maine Partnership, has spent $6.2 million, with all of the money coming from Hydro-Quebec.

The message of project proponents is centered around the economic and environmental benefits of the project. Building the power line will generate 1,600 construction jobs, increase the state’s gross domestic product by $573 million, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New England by 3 million metric tons. There are also benefits tied directly to the project — $6 million for education programs, $140 million for electric rate relief, $200 million for the energy grid, and $15 million each for electric vehicle infrastructure, heat pumps, and broadband infrastructure in western Maine.

Continue reading at:

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/energy/mass-becomes-dirty-word-in-...

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Comment by Willem Post on July 8, 2020 at 12:12pm

The line should be buried, as they do in Germany, after 20 years of hassling about north-south HVDC transmissions lines.

They greatly reduce environmental impacts compared to aboveground visible lines on up to 135-ft high towers

Comment by Eric A. Tuttle on July 8, 2020 at 11:01am

Federal EPA in its report recommended Undergrounding and remains its recommendation. CMP / Avangrid / Iberdrola are trying to avoid this added expense by trying to find a State that will neglect this EPA recommendation. 

Furthermore, it will open the door to more Wind Power in the Western Maine Mountains, with some reports openly stating that the corridor is also for that purpose. 

Also with but a few route changes it plays into the completion of the Peter Vigue dream of an East-West Transportation / Utility Corridor across Maine, from Calais to a location near Coburn Gore. 

This along with the MEPCO project corridor will complete all but 25-30 miles of corridor designated lands. Corridors come under Federal FERC jurisdiction which will remove any authority of control from the state or the citizens. 

Comment by Gary Campbell on July 8, 2020 at 10:06am

I strongly oppose the Hydro-Quebec/CMP corridor project for a number of reasons. Consider the following:

1) Unless I'm mistaken, Maine's Wind Energy Act declares that Maine does not consider hydropower as a renewable resource and that hydropower can not be counted towards Maine's renewable goals.

2) That the purpose of dismissing the value of hydropower was the Governor's and the legislature's way of making certain it did not impede the wanton development of onshore wind energy projects.

3) That Angus King and John Baldacci pushed the Wind Energy Act, handpicking those who would draft it and timing it so that the legislature would be forced to vote on it without any discussion.

4) That Angus King subsequently became a wind developer.

5) That John Baldacci is currently Vice Chairman of Avangrid which owns Central Maine Power, Avangrid is owned by Spanish conglomerate, Iberdrola.

In short, those who saw that Maine could not count hydropower as renewable are now telling Mainers we have a DUTY to allow the Hydro-Quebec/CMP corridor to deface our wilderness because the hydropower it will deliver to Massachusetts is renewable.

The upcoming referendum will show whether the citizens of Maine can see the Hydro-Quebec/CMP Corridor as the swindle it is. Both New Hampshire and Vermont saw the project for what it is and refused to allow it in their states. Will Maine stand up for itself and protect its North Woods? We'll see in November.

 

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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