Serge Abergels’ defense of the NECEC Corridor by Hydro-Québec continues because it is his job to defend Hydro-Québec, much the same as a defense attorney is paid to defend a guilty client. A defense attorney will aim his rhetoric at any person who comes forward with evidence that his client is actually guilty with the hope of swaying the jury his way and perhaps getting that client off with no consequences.
However no matter how many times Mr. Abergel says how wonderful the Corridor would be for Maine the evidence is overwhelming to the contrary. And “No” the oil and gas companies, financing opposition to the Clean Energy Corridor, have not pushed their “talking points” into my hands. Neutral research yielded the real truth and no amount of “Defense Attorney” maneuvering changes those facts!
I am at a loss as to why Mr. Abergel, speaking for Hydro-Québec, would say what he has as to how the NECEC corridor could be so environmentally good for Maine. He states “that the project will cut 3 million metric tons of emissions per year from Maine’s air by displacing dirty fossil-fuel generation. That’s equivalent to removing over 700,000 cars from the road.” Does he not know that according to the EPA just taking one mega cruise ship out of service would save the whole USA the equivalent of more sulfur dioxide than 13 million cars and more soot than 1 million cars? This is not “per year” as the Mr. Abergel touts to remove with the corridor, but “it is each day.” So why force a project on Maine and our environment that could be solved with sidelining a few cruise ships?
So leave the corridor area alone, remove a mega cruise ship, and we have solved the pollution problem “per day” not per year. That would also stop the Canadian violations of UNDRIP that they signed on to, which they have not adhered to, by their continual displacement of Native People to build these mega dams to sell power to the U.S. At one time Mr. Abergel also even stated “Quebecers have been reading newspaper articles on Hydro-Québec’s clean energy surplus for years.” Just ask any of the displaced native Quebecers and they will tell you how dirty the toxic aftermath of the Hydro dams really are. Those displaced can’t eat the fish in the river any longer, or be poisoned if they do, many have no clean water to use, and others don’t even have electricity. Really!
Does Mr. Abergel also “not know” that Canadian scientists warned their Gov. many years ago when these mega dams were first proposed, that they would screw up the eco system in CA, and US, resulting in drastic loss of fisheries? CA and US scientists have both testified verbally and in research papers, then and now, extensively, as to how detrimental these dams would be, and now the devastation is evident. “Not clean, not environmentally friendly.” “And” he wants us to allow this via an electric company, CMP, with the lowest rating of all power companies in the U.S.?
Just do some research on Iberdrola/Avaingrid/CMP and New Mexico, where they are using Maine as an example of how bad this company would be to take over much of their electric grid. The majority of the concerns expressed focused on Avangrid’s poor management of Maine’s largest utility [CMP] as well as investigations into executives with Avangrid’s parent company, Iberdrola. You know the same executive[Ignacio Galan] our Gov. and staff met with here before all of this began. All recent public information.
Marjorie Monteleon
Southwest Harbor
