Time and again, our economy has been hurt as factories move south, west or go abroad. Communities and individuals in rural Maine have been especially hard hit. Now, finally, our location is providing economic benefits. Massachusetts wants Quebec hydropower and is offering Maine hundreds of millions of dollars to get it.
Opponents are using anger at Central Maine Power to generate opposition to the power line with “No CMP Corridor” signs along our roads. This may feel good, but it misses the point.
In the end, it will be our power line. CMP may not even exist in a year. However, the improved electricity infrastructure, tax income, lower electricity costs, payments for improved rural broadband, home insulation, electric cars, heat pumps, recreation projects and more will continue for decades, all with out-of-state money. The new tax revenue alone will total approximately half a billion dollars over the next 25 years.
The environmental impacts are also ours, but they are reasonable for these benefits. Western Maine will have 54 miles of new transmission corridor with low vegetation where trees now grow, some existing corridors will be wider and new brown pylons will dot the route. This is offset by the benefits of replacing oil and natural gas with renewable energy, reducing CO2 emissions and knowing that the impacts are limited compared to those of our traditional forest industries.
The project is not the answer to all our needs, but it is too valuable and our needs too large to dismiss just to get back at CMP.
Stephen Sawyer
Brunswick
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