We urge you to vote Yes on Ballot Question 1 to stop the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission corridor.

AMC has long opposed the NECEC project, a proposed above-ground transmission line from Quebec to Massachusetts, crossing through Maine. 53 miles of the project would require a new, 150-foot wide corridor to be cut through undeveloped forest, and the line would cross beneath the Kennebec Gorge. The corridor would damage important wetland habitat and cross 200 rivers and streams in the largest contiguous block of undeveloped forestland east of the Mississippi River. Despite this widespread impact, there's no guarantee the project would lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

From the start, the project has circumvented standard processes. The Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit without conducting a full Environmental Impact Statement, despite doing so for similar projects in New Hampshire and Vermont.

Similarly, the State Bureau of Public Lands issued the project a lease to cross public lands without an appropriate analysis of the project’s impact on those public lands, according to a Maine Superior Court judge who has vacated the lease. The lease allows the NECEC to cross a parcel of public land, substantially altering it, without the legislative approval called for in Maine's constitution. This sets a dangerous precedent that could put iconic state lands such as Tumbledown and Donnell Pond at risk of similar development.

Maine's forestland should not be fragmented. Our state deserves better than this project, and we hope you'll vote Yes on Question 1.

~ Eliza Townsend, Maine Conservation Policy Director, Appalachian Mountain Club