The seemingly unending debate over the Central Maine Power transmission corridor is always entertaining, because it provides for a lot of irony.

Like the irony of hearing self-identifed pro-free market, anti-government intrusion, uber-conservatives arguing shamelessly that Maine state government needs to mercilessly soak a private corporation, CMP/Avangrid. I heard defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate Shawn Moody on “The Ray Richardson Show” not long ago making this argument, presumably with a straight face. Is conservatism such a vapid philosophy that it can be turned on and off like a light switch depending on what this week’s or this hour’s mood is?

Conservatives always argue it’s wrong to soak (pun intended) Swiss-owned water giant Nestle/Poland Spring for X cents per liter of water they take from Maine’s ground and sell around the world. But it’s OK to soak Spanish-owned CMP for kilowatt-hours transported above Maine’s ground and sold in Massachusetts?

What about Canadian conglomerate Irving, which is now and has been for years Maine’s largest private landowner? I can’t imagine hearing any conservatives argue for soaking them for extra dollars per acre of Maine’s land that Irving logs or mines or develops.

How far down the rabbit hole of xenophobia-tinged dog-whistle politics do they want to go, and when do we stop taking them seriously? Conservatives love to scream “socialism” around the clock at anyone and everyone, but what exactly would they call what they are demanding of CMP/Avangrid?

Jeremy Smith

Old Orchard Beach

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