To the Editor:

In the March 26 edition of the Franklin Journal, Serge Abergel wrote a letter to the editor called “Opinions should be based on facts, science and honest conversation.” In it, he cited  “studies” and pretended to be an unbiased proponent of “clean energy.” This is a very interesting letter, from the Director of Communications, Hydro Quebec.

Hydro Quebec, who stands to make BILLIONS from this deal, yet refused to testify under any sort of oath during the permitting process. Hydro Quebec, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Province of Quebec,  who has spent upwards of 10 million on direct advertising to lobby against a citizens initiative put forth by the people of Maine.

This type of lobbying, by Mainers, would be illegal in Quebec. On a legislative committee call last week, Sophie Brochu, the CEO of Hydro Quebec said something like, and I paraphrase, “In Quebec, we don’t let the citizens make laws,” inferring people can’t be trusted with such important business, only politicians should be.

Hydro Quebec, and their partner CMP (another foreign company) are currently occupied in the most expensive lobbying and PR campaign against any citizens’ initiative in the history of Maine. Think about that for a minute – two foreign giants lobbying to tell Mainers what they think is best for them. Not a great precedent no matter where you stand on the CMP corridor issue – it should be illegal.

Now, Mr. Abergel, in his letter, spins half-truths with the skill of a well trained and well paid professional who’s job is to convince people to believe him by giving one biased side of the equation. In his letter, he states that Jonathan Carter conveniently omits that the fossil fuel industry financed the signature gathering efforts.

Were there some paid signature gatherers? Yes there were. But the overwhelming number of people gathering signatures were unpaid volunteers who worked their tails off, in winter, through a pandemic.

Now lets also mention that Hydro Quebec supplements their own power supplies with oil and gas powered generators, and CMP/Avangrid/Iberdola are in the energy business managing fossil fuel plants around the world. I felt the need to help Serge fill in the gaps here, as he conveniently forget “the rest of the story.”

I guess another question for Serge is why Hydro Quebec and CMP fought so hard to lobby against legislation to create a study to prove their claims that this project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale?

When people are scared of the objective truth, it tells you all you need to know. As CMP spokesman John Carroll said at the Farmington town meeting on the subject, this project is not about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Then why is this all you hear about from CMP and HQ in their advertising? Because they know it what the people want to hear, whether its true or not.

I feel like I could go on and on, but I won’t. But I will ask any readers to consider this. Who do you trust? Our grassroots, unpaid movement volunteering our time to stop this bad for Maine deal. Or people like Serge Aberdel and Sophie Brochu from Hydro Quebec, who stand to gain billions for foreign companies (and bonuses for themselves) out of the deal?

PS: Maine currently produces more power than it needs, this is nothing other than a money grab for huge foreign corporations. Be prepared to VOTE YES to Stop the CMP Corridor in November.

Darryl Wood

New Sharon

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