A recent letter, “NECEC will help reduce impacts of climate change in Maine” (Dec. 9), completely missed the mark. For example, the very first sentence references your Dec. 6 editorial about a recent climate report put out by the Mills administration as an example of why New England Clean Energy Connect is “needed.” This is highly misleading, considering the climate report doesn’t mention CMP’s unpopular project a single time.

There’s a good reason that all of Maine’s leading environmental groups – Natural Resources Council of Maine, Sierra Club and Forest Ecology Network – agree that NECEC is a deeply flawed project that would cause irreparable harm to Maine’s undeveloped wilderness.

Throughout the entire permitting process, Hydro-Quebec hasn’t testified once under oath about the source of the power, and they joined with Central Maine Power to hire 30 lawyers to kill a bill submitted in Augusta that would have studied the climate impacts of this project because they don’t want Mainers to know the truth.

For this project to have any impact on carbon emissions, the power would have to come from a new source. This project simply shifts existing power from Canadian markets to the New England market so Hydro-Quebec, and CMP, can make billions. This is why a witness for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office has spoken out in opposition to this project, which is nothing more than a shell game.

NECEC is a bad deal for Maine, and it’s time for the residents of this state to have a say at the ballot box. Please email stopnecec@gmail.com to sign a petition today.

William Schmidt
Pownal