Jim Wellehan
July 22, 2019
Business Resources
Commentary: This environmentalist favors CMP’s $950M transmission corridor
By Jim Wellehan
Climate Change is increasingly obvious to most people now. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that we have no more than 11 years to dramatically reduce the emissions that we create daily and no more than 30 years to eliminate all fossil fuels. Getting the job done faster will have more benefits. There are those who say it cannot be done without causing huge economic loss.
Happily, they’re wrong. In 2004, Lamey-Wellehan committed itself to cut carbon emissions in half by 2020. We achieved it in 2019 and, as a percent of sales, we cut our cost of energy by half at the same time. Cutting carbon makes all the economic sense in the world.
Eliminating fossil fuels will create a need for sleek efficiency, and a dramatic increase in electric use, which should only mean a very dramatic increase in available clean energy from the necessity of changing our transportation, heating and cooling to electric. And here is some difficult news. There is no perfectly clean energy. Wind turbines require mining, manufacturing and transporting. The same is true with solar panels, geo-thermal systems and heat pumps. Hydro-power requires cement usage for dam construction, which is carbon intensive.
The New England Energy Connection Line, proposed by Central Maine Power, would lower future electricity costs in Maine by an estimated $44 million a year. It w0uld reduce CO2 emissions by 3 million tons, equivalent to taking 700,000 cars off the road. It would provide $15 million for electric vehicle infrastructure, $15 million for heat pump support, $140 million for consumer-rate relief, $50 million for low-income consumer rate relief; $15 million for fiber optic and broadband expansion. It would provide $10.5 million for economic and tourism development; $6 million for education; $3 million in benefits to the Passamaquoddy Tribe; and $6 million and 2,800 acres for conservation.
We face issues with very little time for solutions, let alone perfect ones. The power line would bring green energy into our regional electricity grid, benefiting all New England states.
I have friends who have expressed concern about damage to the Brook Trout and Arctic char in streams that the transmission line would cross. The 150-foot wide space allotted to the power line involves 53 miles of new but narrow space. Compare that to 6,000 miles of existing ATV trails.
Those same friends are also concerned that Hydro-Quebec will sell power to Massachusetts through Maine by taking it from existing customers, replacing power as needed with fossil fuel energy. I do not believe that this is the case, as Hydro-Quebec has been committed to building Hydro-power since 1986. The demand and need for clean energy has grown since then and Hydro-Quebec has built more hydro-power, with excess capacity.
Maine has huge potential to contribute to a greener and safer world, and an obligation to do so. To provide an option for the amount of energy that Massachusetts needs would require 8,000 wind turbines.
Maine will do well if we move aggressively on green energy.
We should promote offshore wind, hydro power and solar. Maine should encourage or incentivize people, communities and businesses to go green.
We are under a short time deadline to green the world. Maine will do well if we move aggressively on green energy, poorly if we don’t. I don’t want to see forest fires burn up our state or our coastal regions under water. I have rafted the Kennebec, paddled a canoe on the Dead River, done the circle trip on the Moose River starting on Attean Pond. I love Maine. I love our environment. Let’s do all we can for both!
Jim Wellehan is a principal at Lamey-Wellehan Shoes. He can be reached at jim@lwshoes.com
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