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Letter to the editor: Incompetent CMP can’t build NECEC – vote ‘yes’ in November
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Why should Mainers trust that Central Maine Power can build and maintain their multibillion-dollar corridor without messing up again? We shouldn’t.
Let me count the ways that Spanish-owned CMP has continued its hot streak of incompetence and shame as a company.
• Fraudulent billing: CMP caught hot water for their mismanagement-at-best and fraudulent-at-worst billing, earning them a $10 million fine just last year (the single largest financial penalty for a utility in Maine ever).
• Worst customer satisfaction in the nation: CMP’s 2019 last-place national ranking in the J.D. Power business customer satisfaction survey was hard-earned. They regularly rank behind the power utility that set California on fire and went bankrupt. Well done, CMP.
To the Editor:
The fake news floating around about the New England Clean Energy Connect project is primarily penned by CMP and their massive PR machine. Facts? The 1600 jobs created will be divided among a consortium of 5 companies (4 out-of-state). These jobs are IN MAINE but not necessarily for Mainers. The supply of hydropower to Maine from Hydro Quebec is close to non-existent, and, according to scientific research by Dr. Brad Hager and others, conclude that the HQ dam complex is about as clean as a coal-fired plant. (NOT clean).
Good for Maine? CMP will clear cut over 2000 acres of land for this corridor and then claim it’s beneficial to climate change. Doesn’t something smell? It is difficult to believe how anyone could support this project given the billions of dollars in profits that will go to CMP’s Spanish owner, Iberdrola. A good project speaks for itself. This project is rife with half-truths, misdirection, and alternative facts offered up by CMP “fact checkers
SARAH WHITFIELD, News Contributor
Cole Peters of POWER Engineers, Inc. presents on behalf of CMP via Zoom. Zoom screenshot
Amy Burchstead explains the location of her property. Zoom screenshot
Monday evening’s Wiscasset planning board meeting drew what Chair Karl Olson called a “record” turnout of 20 attendees. Permitting specialist Cole Peters of POWER Engineers, Inc. represented Central Maine Power to propose a new transmission line on 6.3 miles of existing CMP right-of-way land. The line would run 2.9 miles from the Maine Yankee substation to Woolwich and then back into Wiscasset 3.4 miles northeasterly into Alna.
Peters said there would be work in the Maine Yankee yard, as well as the construction of two types of poles that will require board approval. CMP Manager of Permitting and Compliance Gerry Mirabile said the project is related to, but separate from, the New England Clean Energy Connect project and will be a network upgrade owned and operated by CMP. Mirabile
Here’s Something: Maine should connect with clean energy
By John Balentine
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On this Earth Day weekend, Mainers should take a moment to study the New England Clean Energy Connect corridor project for themselves. If they do so, they’ll realize that it’s a boon for the state, region and Mother Nature herself.
John Balentine, a former managing editor for the Lakes Region Weekly, lives in Windham.
They’ll also quickly realize that Maine environmentalist groups are being shortsighted and ridiculous by continuing to oppose a project that is designed to transmit clean Canadian hydropower to Massachusetts, across Maine’s western and southern regions via a new high-powered electrical transmission line.