The $100 Million Fight Over a Maine Power Line

Just 5 firms have spent $96.3 million over the previous two years in a battle over a transmission line in northern Maine that can face a reckoning on the poll field subsequent week. A distant transmission line operating by miles of sparsely populated woods might not seem to be such an enormous deal, however the subject has ramifications far past Maine’s borders.

The battle has been so contentious that part-time Mainer Tucker Carlson weighed in. And it’s been so bizarre that, improbably sufficient, the dependably batshit local weather denier really sided with environmentalists opposing the undertaking. Next week, it’ll get a vote.

The focus of all this cash and unusual bedfellows is a proposed 145-mile (233-kilometer) transmission line owned by native utility Central Maine Power (CMP). The line would run by the northern portion of Maine, connecting hydropower produced in Canada to the grid in Massachusetts so as to assist state meet its clear vitality objectives. Construction on the $1 billion hall really began in February. But the facility line is the main focus of a November 2 poll initiative that might presumably kill the undertaking. (An extra try to put the road on final 12 months’s poll was deemed unconstitutional.)

As Utility Dive reported, the monetary battle of the destiny of the Maine woods is basically being fueled by simply 5 firms on varied sides of the problem. Avangrid, the proprietor of CMP, and Hydro-Québec, which owns the hydropower on the different finish of the road, are throwing cash into campaigns to maintain the undertaking alive. The duo spent $66.5 million alone on PACs combating in opposition to the poll measure (a “yes” vote would kill the undertaking). The undertaking can be an enormous win for these two entities: Hydro-Québec may earn $490 million a 12 months alone from the road, which might provide about 8% of the electrical energy utilized in New England.

On the opposite facet, NextPeriod Energy Resources, one of many nation’s largest utilities; Calpine, a pure fuel firm; and Vistra, a Texas-based vitality firm, have been spending large to defeat the road. Together, they’ve poured $24 million right into a separate PAC. A spokesperson for CMP’s lobbying arm informed Earther in May that each one three of those firms personal oil, pure fuel, and nuclear producing stations in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The undertaking may cut back vitality and capability costs within the area, Utility Dive reported, which might be a difficulty for his or her backside line.

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Nearly $100 million is a lot of cash for Maine. The Bangor Daily News reported that the cash added up to now three weeks alone—$24 million—makes the battle Maine’s most costly poll referendum marketing campaign in historical past. As some extent of comparability, oil firms spent $31.5 million in complete to kill a Washington state carbon tax referendum in 2018. Overall, the CMP battle is the second-most costly political marketing campaign in state historical past, trailing solely final 12 months’s nationally contentious fight for Senate between Sen. Susan Collins and her Democratic challenger.

All this cash is being thrown at one thing that has brought on actual native rigidity in Maine. The line is proposed to run by 53 miles of Maine’s North Woods, a 3.5-million-acre parcel of land that’s the largest undeveloped forest within the japanese U.S. Environmental teams have raised considerations about how the undertaking would impression endangered brook trout residing in rivers alongside the proposed route. Locals have expressed worries about how building would hurt tourism within the North Woods, an important trade within the area. Towns have alleged that they weren’t adequately consulted by CMP concerning the undertaking, and that the undertaking has really stopped some local renewables projects within the space from shifting ahead. Some environmentalists additionally declare that the hydropower that will be sourced from Quebec is not as clean because it’s been made out to be. That the facility line will ship clear vitality to Maine’s wealthier neighbor to the south quite than the state provides yet one more layer of rigidity.

These are actual, robust conversations about how native communities will be disrupted by big-ticket vitality tasks and the tradeoffs between conservation on a neighborhood scale and stopping catastrophic local weather change on a bigger scale. But because the marketing campaign finance knowledge reveals, they’re, successfully, being hijacked by company cash on both facet for their very own pursuits. Carlson’s section, which aired in May, illustrates how dangerous actors can use these points to color renewable vitality as an entire in a destructive mild.

“This corridor is more than an energy project—it’s an attack against rural America and the people who live there,” Carlson stated in his section. That’s not fairly what’s happening, however given the massive sum being spent on this one rural portion of America, it’s no marvel persons are questioning motives.