To the Editor:
I am writing to give an update on the status of the No CMP Corridor Campaign. Since the referendum has been designated as Question 1 and a YES vote will be required to pass it, I will be referring to the campaign henceforth as the Yes on 1 Campaign to reject the CMP Corridor. It is critical that you spread the word amongst all your voting family members, friends, and neighbors who are registered to vote in Maine to get to the polls this November 2. Question one will read:
Do you want to ban the construction of high-impact electric transmission lines in the Upper Kennebec Region and to require the Legislature to approve all other such projects anywhere in Maine, both retroactively to 2020, and to require the Legislature, retroactively to 2014, to approve by a two-thirds vote such projects using public land?
We are up against huge corporate powers (CMP and Hydro-Quebec) backed by their political stooges and shills. We only have to follow the money trail – 27 million and counting – to understand how the Mill’s cabal has been able to shepherd this project forward in spite of popular and legislative disapproval. It is a sad day in Maine when the “powerful” use disinformation to promote their corporate sponsors agenda.
FEN has spent a lot of effort challenging the shills who like to call it “The Clean Energy Corridor” when in fact it should be called the “Dirty Energy Corridor”. While the Superior court vacated the leases contrived in backrooms by the LePage (2014) and Mills (2020) administrations since they both violated the Maine state constitution. The constitution requires 2/3 approval in both the House and Senate for any major changes on public land.
Climate change remains the paramount threat to life on earth. The primary reason this energy corridor should be stopped is because it is carrying energy that has been produce as a result of massive ecological destruction as well as an ongoing huge carbon footprint. Not only are the huge reservoirs behind the mega dams emitting methane (80x more impacting than CO2), but they are acting as heat sinks which have changed the climate in the arctic and subarctic. These warmer temperatures have resulted in permafrost melting and thus increased anerobic decomposition which also results in massive methane release. In addition, the warmer water is released in the winter resulting in no freeze up for hundreds of miles below the dams. The absence of a normal spring freshet carrying
high amounts of nutrients result in massive population declines of diatoms and phytoplankton both of which are carbon sequesters. Diatom’s exoskeletons sink to the bottom and act as a permanent sink for carbon. If you are interested in the ecological impacts of mega dams, I strongly recommend Stephen Kasprzak’s book, “Arctic Blue Deserts – Flatlining the Arctic’s Pulse”.
I have also included in this mailing an article, “The dirty dam truth” by the CEO of Patagonia – a long time sponsor of many of FEN’s efforts. The article aptly points out that mega dam construction is a relic of the past. Hydro power from these dams is being marketed as clean and renewable when in fact the opposite is true. CMP and Hydro-Quebec are simply out to make billions of dollars at the expense of planetary health. Profit should never trump ecosystem well being. Sometimes I wonder what we have learned since the days of such luminaries as John Muir and Rachael Carson. Are we as a species bent on our own destruction? Some would call me naïve, but I am not willing to accept that humanity cannot learn to live in peace with nature. My six grand kiddos are counting on us!
We can stop this corridor from crossing Maine. The polling seems to indicate that Yes on 1 vote is maintaining its lead, but we cannot be complacent. We know that CMP and Hydro- Quebec will spend whatever it takes to sell their disinformation campaign. While as a non-profit, FEN cannot tell folks how to vote, we can provide information as well as request that FEN members help inform others. I hope you will meet the challenge.
Any support you can send FEN will help us increase the range of our outreach.
I hope your fall is going well and that you can make it the polls on November 2.
Jonathan Carter
Dir FEN
Lexington
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