We did not discuss everything before voting to give Maine’s legislature the ability to stop construction of the New England Clean Energy Connect. We did not discuss the fact that a grid that relies on renewable energy must have a reserve to draw upon when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. We did not discuss the fact that batteries can not provide this power without doing significant damage to the environment. The waste produced by the mining and manufacturing operations required to produce them is a problem we’ve yet to address.
Hydroelectric reservoirs have always been included in the design of clean energy grids because they offer the safest way to store energy. As it stands we could cover Maine in solar panels and wind turbines, and still we’d be forced to pollute.
There was never a perfect solution to this, just a more perfect solution. To get at that we’d have to carefully compared all options available. Those are batteries, hydroelectric reservoirs, or a generation alternative like fossil fuels and radioactive materials offer. One of those things is clearly cleaner than the others.
Jamie Beaulieu
Farmington
