In the past Central Maine Power linesmen reliably worked to get the power back on. Now CMP relies heavily on contractors. CMP claims that most of the jobs to build the NECEC transmission corridor will be filled by Maine workers and create equipment reliability. The reality is that only 36 permanent jobs will be created. The permanent jobs lost in the recreation, biomass, solar and offshore wind industry will far out way the benefits of this temporary boom. If this project is built we will be much worse off than before.

Eight years ago, after Spanish company Iberdrola bought CMP, they built up the electrical grid with a $1.6 billion project they called the Equipment Reliability Project. Maine ratepayers trusted a then-reliable CMP and we all paid for this project on our power bills.

Since then CMP went from the top of the J.D Power list in customer satisfaction to the very bottom of that same list. CMP is saying that an additional $200 million of the cost to build the transmission corridor will again be for, you guessed it, equipment reliability. Who is that reliability for? This is a hard sell to my neighbors without power who lost much-needed food at a time of a terrible pandemic.

The only reliability seen from this project is a reliable yearly $60 million profit for Spanish CMP and $350 million for Hydro Quebec.

Don’t buy into the increased reliability from this transmission corridor; buy a generator instead, I did.

Ed Buzzell

Pittsfield

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