MAINE PUBLIC • June 10, 2020
Canadian energy giant Hydro-Quebec says it will offer Maine a cut-rate deal on a slice of the electricity carried by a powerline that Central Maine Power wants to build through Maine's western woods. Hydro-Quebec is offering to sell a half million megawatt-hours a year to a large Maine buyer at a discount of $4 per megawatt-hour. The Mills administration says that would be worth $2 million annually to state consumers. Project opponents in the environmental community say it could be worth only about 12 cents off a $100 utility bill. Nick Bennett, staff scientist at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, calls that "nothing."