Maine residents cannot allow the Maine Public Utilities Commission to give Central Maine Power the right to build the proposed transmission line. I don’t care what Barry Hobbins has negotiated “for the benefit” of the people.

There is nothing Mainers are going to get from CMP that would help. The majority of the jobs would be temporary. The power isn’t stopping here; Maine is just a transportation portal to Massachusetts. Hydro-Quebec didn’t sign a contract to sell power to Maine; it signed the deal with Massachusetts. The money it has offered will be eaten up by inflation within two years.

Has everyone forgotten that a few years ago, Maine wanted to expand the natural gas pipeline into the state from Massachusetts? Massachusetts said “no,” and that was the end of it. No one tried to move it through other states.

I have seen the building of the new power lines across Quebec and Newfoundland, extending from the new hydro plant in Muskrat Falls, Labrador, which I believe CMP’s parent company has a hand in. It leaves a giant scar across the pristine wilderness.

Maine will be left with a physical abscess across the state forever. That is all Mainers will get out of it.

Eric Coffman, Livermore Falls

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