There is a heated debate in northwestern Maine over carving up this wild frontier to satisfy one state’s desire for clean energy and to create wild profits for Central Maine Power (“CMP touts benefits of power line project in Farmington,” July 16).

This region is a place that resides in the person, not the other way around. CMP would profit $60 million per year to connect Canada to Massachusetts through pristine wilderness, the last of it’s kind. The cut would require brush suppression from heavy equipment, chemicals, hydraulic fluid spills, and other destructive practices and mishaps. It would cut through the heart of the Moose River Valley, the Kennebec Gorge, and over the other pristine mountains, ponds and streams. It puts heritage waters and precious, coveted native trout at risk. It is not worth taking a chance that this could impact native brook trout and other wildlife with erosion and electromagnetic fields. Deer are sparse enough in this area. Tourists do not come to see powerlines, and they detract from the natural allure of the area.

For Massachusetts to decide to be green by making Maine brown is repulsive. They can be sustained within their own borders if they just find the will. They turned down wind and have shuttered power plants. That was a choice. Just because they don’t want it in their back yard doesn’t mean it should be in our front yard. There is no benefit to Maine, only to a corporation based in Spain.

Countless environmental groups, land stewards and the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife are opposed. It will be like opening Pandora’s box on our wilderness if approved. The promises and wildlife studies done by CMP will not matter when this goes sideways, but executives in shiny buildings that have never set foot here will profit for eternity.

Kaleb Jacob

Registered Maine Guide

New Boston, New Hampshire


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