To stay in the New England power pool or not, that is Maine’s current dilemma. We need better information than we get from David Farmer’s editorials or Gov. Baldacci’s on-air musings that Maine may not want “to carry water” for New England.

Maine is temporarily, and only recently, a net exporter to the grid. Consumer rates are high, as are taxes, because of shortsighted choices. Since Maine Yankee’s completion in 1972, we have been our own worst enemies in rational planning for power needs.

In 1970, Maine’s population stood at about 994,000. Now it’s over 1.3 million. Maine Yankee, which provided inexpensive nuclear energy, is defunct. Not built were a proposed nuclear plant, the Dickey-Lincoln hydropower dam on the St. John River, a tidal power station in Passamaquoddy Bay, an oil terminal at Searsport and wind power projects.

Remember, “No thank you, Hydro-Quebec?”

Recently, Maine communities turned down several liquefied natural gas terminals, one proposed on a former Navy fuel depot. After decades of procrastination, we finally permitted a natural gas pipeline from Canada (sustainable?). We adopted gas-powered generation, at the nadir of gas prices. Some mothballed biomass boilers are running again, but the list of energy projects declined or decommissioned goes on.

As our population and economy grow, will the rest of New England and the Canadian Maritimes carry water for us, or are we ready to make some good choices for the future?

Judith Berg, Buckfield

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