The Maine people and most of our legislators were late to the table in learning of CMP’s plan for corridor status through the western Maine mountain wilderness. We pushed back with a failed referendum effort and numerous bills that, unfortunately, were vetoed by Gov. Mills.

Mainers soon recognized the tone in Augusta, so we moved forward with a successful referendum effort to bring the NECEC decision to the ballot. Avangrid and Augusta pushed back through litigation, the delayed appeals process at the Department of Environmental Protection, and by dragging their feet in shutting the project down, despite the directive from 59% of Maine voters.

Those delays, and the illegally obtained permits facilitated by Augusta, emboldened CMP to cut the canopy through 52 miles of America’s last stronghold for native brook trout. I find it unconscionable that Augusta made conscious decisions to work around the Maine Constitution, sacrifice a heritage species, and willingly compromise a significant component of North America’s rapidly shrinking wilderness.

We now wait to learn if the Maine Constitution will be upheld, and the will of the people honored. The recent Law Court decisions are yet another setback, but the numerous appeals still pending give Mainers hope that we will finally be heard.

Until then, my seventh-generation family will keep pushing back against this proposed project of mass destruction through the lands of our ancestors, on both sides of the border.

 

Sheryl Hughey-Harth

Jackman