Now that I have had an opportunity to see my first electric bill of the new year, I cannot help but wonder what lies ahead, especially if the New England Clean Energy Connect is not completed.

If it is built, the corridor will bring relief to the sky-high prices for generating electricity in Maine. Remember, this increase in our bills has nothing to do with CMP or Versant. Most of the electricity used by Mainers is from the fossil fuel industry. Want to know why the standard offer is so high? It is because natural gas prices are out of control. Want to know who funded the campaign to kill the NECEC? Those same fossil fuel companies. Companies like Calpine, Vistra and NextEra. The funding was not done out of their love of Maine’s environment or forests. These companies care about one thing, and one thing only, protecting their bottom lines.

This influx of hydropower will be steady and constant, and it will be used by the entire New England grid, not just Massachusetts as opponents have consistently misrepresented. More energy options equal better rates.

Lost in all the noise is that this project will remove millions of metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere annually for the next forty years, which is good for all of us as Maine moves toward its renewable energy goals. Hopefully, our courts will correct our egregious error and allow this critical project to come to fruition.

 

Kelly Stratton

Winthrop