We are opposed to the proposed high voltage transmission line that would affect a corner of our town and a large swath of Maine. Our primary concerns are the environmental impact of the project and its irreversible effects on sensitive and pristine parts of Maine.

We reviewed the concerns from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which are based on its thoroughly informed research. Its concerns mirror ours. We are concerned that Central Maine Power has exaggerated the benefits to the state and to the individual towns involved to gain approval.

We are not convinced that these potential benefits are worth the cost and risk to the health of the wildlife, wilderness and watersheds that stand to be affected.

We find the endeavor to be short-sighted in an age when renewable and sustainable energy that is generated and used locally should be prioritized over long-distance transmission of energy across state and international borders.

From what we understand, the energy transmitted would not even supply residents of Maine.

The term “clean energy connect” is a misleading title, as the land cleared for the construction of the transmission lines is currently an important carbon sink that would be lost, and the hydro power transmitted is sourced from the damming of rivers which causes irreversible damage to the species which depend on them.

All that for what might be modest benefit, though certainly not for the residents (human or otherwise) who would be most affected.

Tor and Marya Goettsche Spurling, New Sharon