PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 30, 2022
Last November, Maine shortsightedly rejected a major new source of clean, reliable and affordable electricity: hydropower from neighboring Quebec. The 1,200-megawatt project would supply consumers across New England, including in Maine, reducing our greenhouse-gas emissions and vulnerability to natural gas price spikes. Why did New York embrace clean Quebec hydropower while Maine rejected it? In part because Maine’s ballot initiative was weaponized by three fossil energy companies seeking to protect their profits. Mainers must dig deep to pay for overpriced, climate-threatening electricity. Worse, our continuing reliance on fossil fuels empowers autocrats. The Maine Law Court and the PUC have given us reasons to reconsider. In view of all that has happened since – soaring electric rates, global energy insecurity and frightening climate disasters – we hope Mainers will have open minds. ~ David Vail, Bowdoin College economics professor emeritus; Lloyd Irland, former director of the Maine Bureau of Public Lands and Maine state economist