In a recent op-ed, Central Maine Power’s David Flanagan was trying to make the case that his company is all behind a renewable energy future (“CMP chairman: CMP is on the team for Maine’s renewable-energy future,” Feb. 23). If that is the case, I wish his company would spend more resources getting the huge demand for local solar generation safety and efficiently tied into the grid rather then going door to door and producing commercials selling the NECEC. It’s ironic that he touts Maine’s “natural beauty” and “unspoiled outdoor recreational opportunities” as a treasure, while his company pushes a power line project that will be an eyesore to one of the largest tracts of wilderness east of the Mississippi, a unique place offering some the best trout fishing, snowmobiling, hiking and whitewater rafting anywhere in the region.

CMP believes it has every right to use its right of ways, obtained for serving the people of Maine, to set up large and unsightly infrastructure through dozens of communities solely to gain profits delivering power to Massachusetts. In return for the billions they and Hydro-Quebec reap, Mainers get temporary work and token exchanges for a lifetime of unsightly poles and lines dominating our once remote and special landscape. Flanagan should acknowledge that thousands of Mainers signed a petition to get the NECEC onto the ballot in hopes of putting an end to this obnoxious project.

It is time that CMP, as the utility monopoly it is, reprioritizes its obligation to serving the people of Maine with reliability, honesty and stewardship of our resources.

 

John Cote

Farmingdale

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