BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 13, 2021
There is a sad irony to the celebratory noises made by some legislators and environmental groups about the recent court decision that may prevent the use of Maine land for a transmission corridor to bring hydropower into New England. They purport to support strong measures to address the crisis which now seems to be upon us. But it is very discouraging to see them join forces with the fossil fuel industry — which stands to lose money if more hydropower in brought into the New England market and has financed opposition to the project. If expanding an existing transmission corridor, and using commercially forested land for new transmission, is too high a price for keeping millions of tons of carbon out of the air (while injecting more than a billion dollars into Maine’s economy), then it is hard to see how any serious efforts to address climate change can succeed in Maine. ~ Thomas Welch, Former chair, Maine Public Utilities Commission, Hancock