As a decision on a 145-mile Central Maine Power transmission corridor nears, both opponents and supporters are ramping up efforts to influence the outcome.
A record number of comments have been posted on the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s online docket, pushing 1,000 by Wednesday morning. The vast majority are against the project. Some are apparently part of an organized campaign. But others appear to be personal pleas to not clear-cut a corridor through the wilderness, although the land is actually commercial timberland. Comments also reflect an overall anger with CMP and its management, panning its foreign ownership and inability to fix massive billing problems.
This week, the Say NO to NECEC citizen group posted a request on its Facebook page for donations for fighting the project at the Department of Environmental Protection and the Land Use Planning Commission.
Both Say NO and another opposition group, Stop the Corridor, have been asking members to contact Gov. Janet Mills and voice their disapproval.
CMP and its supporters, meanwhile, have sent a mass mailing asking residents to help support clean energy and lower their energy bills. They are being encouraged to mail back a postage-paid card indicating their support and perhaps request a yard sign that reads: “Yes! to 3,500 Maine jobs,” an estimate of the number of workers at peak construction.
A group run by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce called Mainers for Clean Energy Jobs notes on its Facebook page that the project is gaining support “thanks to the economic and environmental benefits it will provide Mainers.”
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