Re: “Letter to the editor: Don’t believe the hype – CMP’s proposed corridor is bad for Maine” (July 9):

A recent letter in the Press Herald by an opponent of the Clean Energy Corridor is comical. The writer states that the campaign to stop clean energy is “grassroots” when it is anything but. The opposition knows the referendum was not once, but twice financially supported by oil and gas companies. They even funded the signature-gathering efforts.

How do you think environmentally conscious Mainers would have responded when asked to sign a petition if the signature gatherer said, “Hi, three oil and gas companies, two from Texas and one from Florida, are paying me to stand here and collect signatures opposing the Clean Energy Corridor. Would you like to sign up?”

Here’s another question: Have you been to Route 201 lately? Tourism is thriving up through The Forks to Jackman despite Central Maine Power currently building the Clean Energy Corridor. To claim otherwise is a scare tactic and a complete falsehood that the opposition continues to use on these pages as well as others.

Here’s a fact: Maine is in danger of losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits, electrical grid infrastructure upgrades and significant reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. We need this project in Maine.

The next time you see a message from project opponents, remember who paid for it – oil and gas – and what that could mean for our future.

Michael Bunker
Portland

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