Since Gov. Janet Mills announced her support for the Central Maine Power transmission line project, there has been a frenzy of politically correct opposition. As usual, CMP and government-owned Hydro Quebec are accused of lying or greenwashing so they can make profits on a project initiated by Massachusetts, not them.

So if this is fake clean energy, why is the biggest funder of the opposition the owners of aging New England coal and oil power plants, along with natural gas plants drawing their fracked gas from leaky wells and leaky pipelines to New England? And the fossil fuels they use are coming from the likes of Exxon Mobil, Peabody Coal, the Koch brothers and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Are the transmission line opponents questioning them? And is it better that these interests continue to make profits than have some of CMP’s profits go to their Spanish parent company, which is active in clean energy initiatives?

Instead of complaining about the leaks of methane shipped here, opponents complain about the small amount of methane released from existing dams in far northern Quebec. The biomass plants oppose the project, but how many carbon sequestering trees do they cut compared with what will be cut on a predominantly existing power line?

The opposition claims that Hydro Quebec will deceive us be rerouting their hydropower from other customers like the state of New York. New York has a more aggressive emission reduction initiative underway than we do at the moment, so why aren’t they complaining? And Massachusetts isn’t smart enough to understand that?

Gov. Mills gets it. The focus should be on global climate change and its threat to all the Maine natural resources the opponents want to protect.

Tony Marple

Whitefield