The Maine Sunday Telegram editorial “Our View: Climate is top concern in CMP powerline case” (Feb. 24) showed a naive lack of interest in following the money when it comes to the New England Clean Energy Connect powerline.
The real reason Hydro-Quebec wants to export power to Massachusetts is their loss of sales to New York state and Ontario. Cheap natural gas made Hydro-Quebec hydroelectricity less competitive and they are losing market share. Saying NECEC will reduce carbon emissions is just not true. Hydro-Quebec is just pulling the plug on New York and plugging into Massachusetts, where they can make more profit.
A Feb. 20 article in the Montreal Gazette stated: “While the volume of Hydro-Quebec’s net exports increased by 1.7 terawatt hours to 36.1 TWh, a new record, its revenue from exports remained flat as the export price for electricity dropped from 4.6 cents per kilowatt hour in 2017 to 4.4 cents per kilowatt hour in 2018.
“That was due to the availability of cheap natural gas in New York state, which has put ‘enormous pressure on prices in the state of New York,’ (Hydro-Quebec CEO Eric) Martel said.
“Ontario also has a surplus of electricity and is buying very little electricity, he said.”
NECEC is a complete sham. Fossil fuels are replacing what Hydro-Quebec used to sell to New York. Massachusetts is buying the “surplus” and can pretend to be combating climate change (No Cape Wind!). And Maine gets a permanent North Woods scar and a 6-cent drop in our monthly electric bills.
David Anderson
Waterboro
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.