Inaccurate and misleading information from CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola has been the hallmark of their campaign to promote the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project. For example, CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola claimed that the NECEC project would create hundreds of permanent jobs when the official record with the Maine Public Utilities Commission shows only 38 permanent jobs after construction.

A recent ad from CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola now claims that all of the 1,600 temporary jobs that will exist during the two-year construction period will be filled by Maine workers. That claim contradicts the official record, public comment and sworn testimony from officials representing CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola. At the public hearing before the PUC in Farmington on Sept. 14, 2018, a spokesperson for CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola stated that the 1,600 temporary jobs would be filled by out-of-state workers. He later qualified that comment by stating that CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola would give priority to Maine workers wherever possible based on qualifications.

Honesty is the best policy. CMP/Avangrid/Iberdrola should adopt that guiding principle in the debate about the NECEC project.

John Nicholas

Winthrop