Opinion: Aroostook Renewable Gateway suffers from a lack of planning

When will people wake up to the absurdity of Maine's carbon goals and recognize such is simply green-speak for pick pocketing? When one starts from a position that such bogus goals are needed and should be attained, they are setting themselves up for disaster.

Opinion: Aroostook Renewable Gateway suffers from a lack of planning

Maine shouldn't fall into the trap of above-ground high-impact transmission lines.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Bolen is a resident of Albion and chair of the Albion Maine Transmission Line Committee.

Tom BolenSpecial to the Telegram

No matter what our politics are, or where we stand on Maine’s transition to a green energy future, we should agree on the need for a comprehensive grid plan that takes into account both environmental and socioeconomic factors. Otherwise, we’re doomed to play a zero-sum political game to the detriment of all.

In its current form, the Aroostook Renewable Gateway would cut a 160-mile-long, 150-foot-wide easements with 140- to 160-foot towers through rural Maine.

As others have pointed out, it would simultaneously deliver clean energy to Southern New England and leave in its wake diminished generational farms, vast environmental damage and, for hundreds of “host” landowners, lower property values. Yet the state has so far refused to study this conundrum, or even to push for a solution that follows the “best practice” of using existing corridors.

This is a serious problem. The Aroostook Renewable Gateway is slated to run through 41 municipalities that don’t have much money or power, a fact at odds with the Legislature’s statutory obligation to “promote energy equity with particular consideration given to the economic circumstances and opportunities in the State’s socially vulnerable counties and communities.”

Is a massive, above-ground system that destroys the landscape and creates hardship for vulnerable communities really something we should embrace without further study? Or should we approach the thorny issue of siting transmission with greater care, both now and into the future? These fundamental (if rhetorical) questions seem to be missing in our conversation.

In order to reach its 2045 carbon neutrality goals, Maine should move forward in a balanced way to harness its abundance of clean energy resources. But without a visible plan for getting there, and without any inclination to consider a less destructive version of the Aroostook Renewable Gateway, it’s easy to conclude that the current approach is bad for Maine at all levels. Even a cursory look at the the 2023 ISO New England Overview and Regional Update reveals that the Aroostook Renewable Gateway will be only one of many transmission projects to come through Maine. To meet this reality, are we ready to cut more corridors and erect endless above-ground high-impact transmission lines?..............................

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