Article by Sierra Club Maine volunteers Deborah Schwartz and Becky Bartovics.
As many of you already know, the proposed Hydro-Quebec/Iberdrola/CMP Corridor will cut a new 53 mile swath through the North Woods in western Maine, from Beattie Township on the Canadian border to Lewiston, where it will connect to an existing 94 mile transmission corridor. For what purpose? In order to bring hydroelectric power to customers in Massachusetts, a state whose environmental regulations explicitly preclude the construction of such environmentally-damaging hydroelectric megadams.
You may not know that all of the project investors are foreign-based. Not just out-of-state, but out of this country. CMP is a subsidiary of Spanish-owned Iberdrola, and Hydro-Quebec is a Canadian Crown Corporation, which allows 100% of profits to benefit foreign-owned entities. So with this project, Maine just happens to be a place for outsiders to plunder and profit, with no regard for what’s best for Maine and our environment.
What’s in it for CMP? A steady stream of new revenue, estimated to exceed $75 million in annual net profit. What’s in it for you, CMP customer and Maine resident? $1.44 per year. That’s right, the monetary benefit to each Maine CMP customer upon completion of the corridor is projected to be a paltry $0.12 credit/bill. How exactly, will such pocket change compensate for the anticipated loss of Roaring Brook mayflies; native wild brook trout; a rare native pogonia in the orchid family; fragmentation of Maine’s globally significant, contiguous western forests and old growth boreal forests in Canada; or for adding to the environmental and lifestyle injustices already levied against indigenous communities on their ancestral lands? With that in mind, the title of this article, “now you see them, then you won’t,” makes a whole lot more sense.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA,) enacted January 1, 1970, established a specific process for permitting agencies to transparently – which means with public input - assess any environmentally sensitive project prior to approval. The underlying intention is to identify a range of alternatives for the construction of a project, including the no-build alternative incorporated into all reviews; then selecting for approval, the preferred alternative(s) for permitting from amongst all the others identified within the review process.
This process involves the independent preparation of an Environmental Assessment (EA) and an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS;) that is, the accumulation and analysis of information without the involvement of the permitting federal agency. The contents of these documents provide the necessary information to assess the potential environmental impacts and associated mitigation costs for a project requiring federal agency permits, such as the CMP corridor project.
The critical importance of such complete reviews is clearly demonstrated by the outcomes of the fully executed NEPA review processes for the Hydro-Quebec project in New Hampshire and in Vermont.
The New Hampshire EIS was completed and the identified alternatives found too damaging to issue the permit. In this case, the “no-build” alternative was the one ultimately approved. The Vermont EIS was completed, resulting in alternatives providing for all lines to be undergrounded or run through underwater cables; practically, an option too costly to pursue. That places the project bulls-eye directly on Maine.
Several substantive elements of NEPA’s federal requirements are missing from the Army Corps of Engineers’ (COE’s) analysis with regards to the proposed project here in Maine. These include an independently prepared EA, a public comment period for the EA and, most critically, the preparation of an EIS, which also requires a public comment period. There has been ample time to develop and present for public comment a totally compliant EA and EIS for this project; an absolute necessity not only because it is required by federal law, but due to the overwhelming size and broad impact of this project. In fact, since spring 2019, Sierra Club Maine, the Penobscot Nation, and the 2nd District of Maine’s congressional representative have formally requested a complete and transparently-prepared EIS.
Ignoring these requirements, the COE issued a Clean Water Act permit in October 2020, allowing construction of the corridor. In immediate response, the chapter, together with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) and the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) filed a lawsuit in federal court to correct these omissions, followed by a preliminary injunction to preserve the status quo pending a court ruling. Our MAINE goal? To have the issued permit set aside, the underway work halted, and an EIS transparently prepared and reviewed.
We at the Maine Chapter are grateful beyond words for the support you have given this cause to date, including the petition opposing the CMP Corridor Project with 100,000 of your certified signatures. Thank you! Together, we have made great progress and together, we can achieve even more. To that end, please click on one of the two following links, Maine District 1 or Maine District 2 to remind your representatives that their opposition to this project will ultimately support Maine residents’ present and future health and well-being.