MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 14, 2020
Serge Abergel, director of media and external relations at Hydro-Quebec, seems to have it wrong in promulgating a recurring myth about New England Clean Energy Connect being “clean” power. Electrical power from Hydro Quebec is not clean. “Politicians who describe dams as ‘clean energy projects’ are talking ‘nonsense’ and rejecting decades of science,” says David Schindler, a leading water ecologist. Two peer-reviewed scientific journal articles state that hydropower from Quebec is as dirty as coal-fired heating plants. Indigenous tribes have suffered from methylmercury pollution. A foreign company is spending large amounts to influence Mainers on an invasive, for-profit project that provides little for Mainers. Ask Hydro-Quebec to fund an environmental impact statement. This will clear up most questions. ~ Richard W. Aishton, Ph.D., Environmental dynamics analyst, Farmington