To the Editor:

I am writing in response to Serge Abergel, director of communications Hydro-Québec letter to the editor “Opinions should be based on facts, science and honest conversation” on 3/26/2021.

I whole heartedly agree and I also believe it’s important to present all the facts. Per the Natural Resource Council of Maine as referenced by by Ethan Andrews in “Hydro-Québec — Big Spending on the CMP Corridor and Bills to Keep It from Happening Again 3/30/2021.”

In the last 15 months, the Hydro-Québec Maine Partnership ballot committee spent $9.99 million to turn public sentiment against any referendum meant to stop the CMP corridor. Additionally, CMP’s Clean Energy Matters PAC raised $14.87 million during the same period, spending much of it burning corridor-positive images of burbling brooks and aerial flyovers of mountains into the mind of every Mainer with a TV or smartphone.

Both amounts were more than the next most expensive campaign on a ballot measure, when supporters of a York County casino proposal spent more than $9 million in 2017.

Hydro-Québec’s purchases included 54 full-page and 32 half-page ads from January to August 2020, more than any other political entity during that period, according to NRCM.  This dwarfs the spending spent by groups working to place the referendum in front of Maine voters!

Rachel Atkins

Brunswick

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