PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 24, 2021
Why has the proposed high-voltage transmission line to carry power from Canada to utility customers in Massachusetts generated such stubborn opposition? CMP, a profit-making corporation, is appropriating for itself the economic benefit of Maine’s geographic location between Hydro-Quebec’s power and a big market for that power in Massachusetts. Maine’s geographic advantage is a matter of chance, not the result of business acumen of CMP or any investment by its shareholder. CMP is asking Maine to bear the burden of this link between an out-of-state purveyor and its out-of-state customer but is planning on retaining most of the benefit for itself. This unhappy scenario could have turned out otherwise had the project been approached from the outset as a full public-private partnership between the state of Maine and CMP. ~ Peter L. Murray, Portland