I listened to Maine Calling on Oct. 22 about Question 1 regarding the CMP corridor and was riveted. It answered all my questions and gave really good detail about why the corridor isn’t addressing climate change. It’s available on mainepublic.org.

The vote on the CMP corridor  isn’t an insignificant vote in a small state; it’s a major battle in the global effort against climate change. To slow climate change we must build new renewable energy projects — wind and solar — to replace fossil fuel sources.

The CMP project is not building a new renewable energy source; it is merely moving electricity already being generated in Quebec to Massachusetts. The only thing CMP is building is an expensive transmission line so that the electrons currently produced from Hydro-Quebec dams can be moved to Massachusetts, where they will fetch a higher price.  Think about how many new solar/wind projects could be built for the $200 million CMP is spending on a transmission line to move power already generated.

Hydro-Quebec is rated as one of the dirtiest sources of hydropower in the world. It flooded forests the size of New Hampshire to create the lakes that flow over its dams. Not only did HQ eliminate a huge forest, which can no longer absorb  CO2, the trees in the lake are now rotting and emitting methane, which increases global warming 25 times more than CO2.

Unfortunately, the regulatory agencies ruling on the project did not take this into consideration, but instead counted all the power coming from CMP’s project as zero carbon emissions. This gives CMP a nice sound bite, but to address climate change we must use our money to build new renewable power not on moving electrons around.

Vote yes on Question 1.

 

Dale McCormick

Augusta