Being a pessimist is challenging, as I often become discouraged by what I see on television. Whenever I see the New England Clean Energy Connect advertisements, I stifle my outrage. Such lies indicating this project is creating jobs for Mainers.

Its presence will harm regional tourism, the biomass industry and related forest products industries. Maine-based renewables are projected to lose $400 million in the first 15 years of the corridor’s operation, according to the grassroots group Vote YES to Reject the Corridor. Meanwhile, as I watch these ads, I know that Hydro-Quebec, a foreign government-owned corporation, has spent more than $10 million to influence the outcome of this referendum.

Volunteering at the Monmouth Fair with Vote YES to Reject the Corridor renewed my spirits. The people I spoke with adamantly shared my opposition to it. Resoundingly, their reason was the desire to preserve the beauty of the North Maine Woods. I heard stories of fishing and hunting there, and the residents’ desire to preserve the largest piece of old-growth forest east of the Mississippi River. Many understood the value of the forested overstory as wildlife habitat; some knew about the threat to brook trout, which spawn in colder water.

Resoundingly, people were aware of Central Maine Power’s reliability as last in the nation. Customers know CMP’s ranking as the worst utility in America by J.D. Power three years in a row.

Instead of needing to convince people that CMP’s proposed corridor is bad for Maine, I only had to explain to them we are voting YES to Reject.

Linda Woods
Waterville

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