The nearly 60% of people who voted on Question 1 were sick of lies. More than $72 million was spent in lying to the public about the so-called clean energy benefits of clear-cutting 53 miles of Maine forest. One only need rub two brains cells together for a minute to comprehend that cutting down trees is not good for the environment despite $72 million of greenwashing. Voters knew that Hydro-Quebec was already selling the power they produce (from flooding indigenous people’s lands) to New York state.
The referendum bans high-impact transmission lines in the upper Kennebec region. So why is CMP continuing to build the project within the 53-mile corridor in western Maine as if nothing happened? Plus its parent company Avangrid has sued the state to label the referendum as unconstitutional. Apparently it’s unconstitutional not to do what this foreign corporation wants.
Our best to chance to stop the project, right now, is for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to step in immediately and stay CMP’s permit. CMP has brazenly chosen to ignore the will of Maine people by continuing construction. Maine DEP cannot ignore the directive by Maine people to stop this project.
The mindset of Gov. Janet Mills and others who colluded in CMP/Avangrid’s falsehoods is grotesquely outdated. If we want a world where our children and grandchildren can survive and thrive, we do not attain it by building unnecessary transmission lines or following the creed of endless growth.
Susan Siens
Unity
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