Its and Ours: Central Maine Power Has a Climate Problem
https://socialistaction.org/2021/02/23/its-and-ours-central-maine-power-has-a-climate-problem/
February 23, 2021
By James Fortin
The recent substantial failures of the for-profit power utilities in
California and now Texas have several things in common. Their uniquely
negligent acts have caused numerous deaths, damage and destruction to
homes, and further deterioration of the natural environment. Whether by
raging wildfires or frozen natural gas lines, the denying CEOs and their
profiteering management act as though climate change is just a cost of
doing business. One more example of the same sort is worth noting.
The small state of Maine (population 1.34 million) recently completed a
massive, year-long deliberative process ending with the adoption of a
4-year blueprint to tackle climate change. Entitled, “Maine Won’t Wait,
a Plan for Climate Action,” the effort involved hundreds of scientists,
local and state officials, businesses, environmental activists and
staffs of universities and colleges working thousands of cumulative hours.
A benchmark effort of the Maine governor, Janet Mills, the plan calls
for a quick turn away from using gasoline to power transportation and
from heating oil to warm homes (60 percent of Maine homes heat with
oil). In its place, the report portends, electricity generated from
wind and solar, coupled with the use of advancing storage technology,
will permit Maine to achieve some of the most aggressive anti-climate
change goals in the U.S. – a 45 percent decrease of greenhouse gas
emissions by 2030, 80 percent by 2050, and a transition to 100 percent
clean energy by 2050. Whether these standards can be achieved, or are
even adequate, remains to be seen as many might say, the devil is in the
details.
Not surprising anyone, the climate plan relies upon the actions of
companies and investors in the economic private sector, with numerous
financial incentives from the state, to bring about the changes
forecasted. That being the case, a key player in the plan will be
Central Maine Power (CMP), the largest electricity transmission and
distribution utility in the state, and a subsidiary of Avangrid, which
is owned by the Spanish conglomerate Iberdrola. The warning flags may
now be raised.
CMP has a history. Its mis-actions over the years – power shutoffs
during brutal Maine winters, mysterious overbilling of thousands of
customers, and a miserable record in power restoration during outages –
garnered the 122-year-old company a distinction in 2020. It was rated
the absolute worst performer among electric utilities across the U.S. in
a survey conducted by J.D. Power. Fines along the way to such dubious
stardom included a whopping $9.9 million dollar penalty last year from
the Maine Public Utilities Commission – its largest-ever fine – for poor
management of the electric grid. Shades of California and Texas!
Besides distributing electric power, CMP also generates plenty of
arrogance and outrage. Earlier this month CMP informed a number of both
approved and proposed solar projects in Maine that their cost to
distribute their clean energy via the established electric power grid,
which CMP controls, would be increased.
More than 100 solar power projects which previously had received cost
estimates to hook up to the grid were stunned. Claiming it needs the
funds to update substations through which solar-generated electricity
would tie into the system, one “upgrade” spiked from $600,000 to $1.3
million. In another, the proposed rip-off skyrocketed from $250,000 to
$9 million! A project engineer working on these 2 solar developments
pointed to similar engineering performed in neighboring Vermont for
$75,000. One developer noted, “Needless to say, such costs will
prohibit these projects from being built.” Another developer agreed,
his project’s extortion toll going from $618,000 to $8.4 million.
The CMP actions immediately evoked overwhelming outrage around the state
including that from the governor, herself. Mills directed the Maine
Public Utilities Commission to open an immediate investigation into
CMP’s actions. She further instructed the Commission to commence a
broader review of the utility to determine its capability to accommodate
the growth of renewable energy generation in the state – her top priority.
Within a day, as if by epiphany, the executive chairman of CMP, David
Flanagan, responded to the outrage stating his company now realized that
the higher costs “would be an impossible barrier” to solar power for
some. Also, his company had found new “solutions” to the proposed
upgrades that now would cost only $175,00 to $375,000, instead of
millions. The cause of the entire matter was laid, of course, upon the
faulty thinking of mid-level CMP management who supposedly were
overworked and had not checked with others before announcing the
figures. Commenting on the current crisis, State Representative Seth
Berry, an outspoken critic of CMP, more precisely summarized the
behavior of CMP as being “Caught trying to shake down solar developers.”
Berry has long warned of the obstacles that would be placed by CMP in
the way of solar electric power generation in the state. He put forth
the possibility that CMP cynically lowered its costs, thereby quieting
public outrage, by scaling back the scope of the jobs to only that
needed immediately. He surmised that nothing would keep the utility from
seeking a rate increase later to pay for the work.
With the support of environmental activists and organizations, Berry,
who is House Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities
and Technology, has a bill pending before the legislature that would
create a consumer-owned, non-profit public electric transmission
utility, eliminating CMP’s role.
An electric power customer in sync with Berry offered what many
ratepayers in Maine think. “CMP has got to go. They are now essentially
breaking contracts with solar project developers. We need this solar
energy to do our part to address climate change… CMP is obviously poorly
managed, and not capable of preparing Maine’s electricity grid for our
clean energy future. Maine needs and deserves an electricity system
designed and operated for the good of Mainers, not on behalf of
stockholders.”
Based on current performance it should come as no surprise that Central
Maine Power has a sordid history that includes precedent to this current
outrage. Using its decades-long monopoly status, hordes of cash, and a
bevy of lobbyists, CMP secured the backing of the Maine Legislature in
1937 to essentially seize the Town of Flagstaff and surrounding valley
farmlands. Through legislative actions the valley was ceded to CMP for
water storage, a dam was built, the valley flooded in 1951, and the
resulting electric power distributed via the CMP electricity grid. In
protest, some residents refused to sell their homes to CMP and hung out
on their rooftops as the flood waters inundated their houses. Yet, CMP
publicly would claim credit for the “progress” it had brought to the
people of Maine. Any mention of gloating, however, was absent from the
news releases.
In the same spirit of bulldozing anything or anyone who gets its way,
Central Maine Power today again is engaged a knock-down fight to secure
$billions in profits via another environmental assault. This time
however, it must take on an organized anti-climate change movement as
well as defeat an alliance of Indigenous peoples.
In 2020 nearly 70,000 registered Maine voters signed a petition to
overturn by referendum a proposal disguised as “clean” energy by an
electric power consortium of CMP, Hydro-Quebec, and others. Involved are
transmission lines that would connect hydroelectric mega-dams in Quebec,
through Maine, to electric utilities in Massachusetts. The petitioners
attempted to reverse governmental approvals for a transmission corridor
that includes a 52-mile long clear cut the width of the New Jersey
turnpike through an area of woodlands and lakes prized by hikers,
sportspeople, and ecological groups. The project then ties into an
existing corridor which will be further developed for a total of 145 miles.
The anti-CMP Corridor coalition had limited financial resources
available to convince Mainers to oppose the project. On the other hand,
the power consortium spent over $19 million in slick ads to fight any
rollback of their $1 billion project calling itself the New England
Clean Energy Connect (NECEC). And if the money did not sway the
public’s thinking, the consortium invested in private investigators
tailing and intimidating those collecting signatures on the petitions.
Losing to Mainers in public opinion polls, CMP headed to the courts
where the referendum was disallowed by the Maine Supreme Court based on
its constitutionality, not environmental merits. Not giving up, however,
anti-CMP corridor activists worked with other forces to initiate
lawsuits and appeals in both the courts and with the regulatory agencies
involved with approvals. At the same time they reworked their petition
to comply with the language of the law, collected over 80,000
signatures, again, then submitted to the State for another referendum
scheduled to be held in November 2021. This time the resolution to stop
the project will be on the ballot.
Aside from the outrageous clear cutting of northern Maine woods to
provide what amounts to a superhighway for transmission lines, CMP has
obscured the very nature of the hydroelectric power generated by its
partner, Hydro-Quebec. While big-dam hydroelectric power is renewable,
it is not clean. And perhaps even more significantly the project relies
on centuries-old exploitation of traditional Indigenous lands and
habitats. It is anything but just.
[Note: Hydroelectric power is produced when reservoir water built up
behind a dam is released via gravity to spin turbines, which generate
electricity. There are no fossil fuels involved in the process, hence
the semblance of producing green energy.]
Before Hydro-Quebec could generate electricity from the 63 dams and 27
reservoirs that comprise its massive hydroelectric system, it had to
destroy extensive forests to create areas for the gigantic reservoirs of
water needed to spin the turbines. With just one of its plants,
Bersimis-1, a vast wooded area was obliterated and then flooded to
create its 290-square mile reservoir. In itself this forever destroyed a
significant forested carbon-sequestering area while producing an
enormous jolt of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Defying the image of clean electricity being produced from moving water,
the captive reservoirs where water is stored also produce carbon dioxide
and methane. Both CO2 and methane are released when vegetation
decomposes in water. Methane is a greenhouse gas that has 80 times the
warming power of CO2 during the 20 years after it is first released,
decreasing in potency with follow-on decades.
Compounding the negative impact of reservoir water, mercury is released
from the flooded soils as well. This poisonous element has been found
at dangerously concentrated levels in fish where it is then passed up
through the human food chain. In Quebec, particularly, the First
Nations have noted increased levels of mercury poisoning within their
communities drastically altering their traditional uses of food and
negatively impacting their spiritually oriented, indigenous ways of life.
The tribes that make up the Quebec First Nations are opposed to the
NECEC citing the history of hydroelectric projects which destroyed their
ancestral lands. Deputy Grand Chief Mary Ann Nui of the Innu Nation
summed up her Nation’s opposition in that “people lost their land, their
livelihoods, their travel routes, and their personal belongings when the
area where the project is located was flooded. Our ancestral burial
sites are under water, our way of life was disrupted forever.” She went
on to point out that the Innu “weren’t informed or consulted about that
project then, and now Hydro-Quebec, without talking to us, intends to
export electricity that is partly produced on our lands to the United
States. It is (a) further insult to the Innu, and we refuse to be
ignored, it is out of the question as an Indigenous people who have
already suffered great harm from Hydro-Quebec that we would allow this
to happen.”
In a joint statement Chief Monik Kistabish of the Anishnabeg of Pikogan,
Chief Adrienne Jérôme of the Lac Simon, and Chief Régis Pénosway of
Kitcisakik , together faulted Hydro-Québec for repeatedly refusing to
discuss compensation for the damages caused by its installations.
“Hydro-Québec wants to export electricity to the United States … but
shows no willingness to compensate our communities for the flooding and
destruction of our traditional territories. This electricity comes from
our lands, and we’re not going to be pushed around any longer.”
The First Nations of Quebec and Labrador deem Hydro-Quebec’s ongoing
transgression to be violations of Canada’s Constitution Act of 1982, as
well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples. Central Maine Power and its parent company, Avangrid, hope to
ignore the issue and are rushing to get their transmission corridor up
and running.
As the Democratic political leadership of the state of Maine has
outlined what part it is willing to play to curb global warming, it is
doing so by giving its consent and support to private capital to get the
job done. That is the way it works under capitalism. Not the governor,
nor the legislature, wish to be seen as promoting direct government
involvement in creating the infrastructure to take on climate change for
fear of being labeled “socialist.” So they will defer even to the likes
of CMP. They will do nothing more than what is acceptable to the
corporate financial mega-contributor genre.
Up to this point in time, if that means partnering with Central Maine
Power, a company that is horrible at what it is supposed to do, as
evidenced by the fines and censures levied against it, or through its
arrogant disregard for the loudly expressed wishes of the people of
Maine, past and present – so be it.
If that means CMP will make more money, more quickly, by aligning with
the interests of industrial scale hydroelectric power, even at the
expense of solar and wind sources that the Maine Climate Action Plan
says is a priority – yes, that too.
And finally, if CMP willingly joins in an alliance of complicity with
Hydro-Quebec – a Canadian state-owned instrument that perpetuates the
settler-colonial oppression of the First Nations through exploitation of
its resources – no problem there either.
Most obviously, CMP needs to be dispatched from the scene immediately,
and that will be a step in the right direction, but it is not sufficient
in itself to defeat the accelerating climate catastrophe. Taking profit
out of the equation for an electric utility in Maine is a small piece in
the national struggle to save the planet. Climate scientists already
have predicted that the atmospheric warming to date already has baked in
many non-reversible, awful consequences for the globe. Failure to end
the use of fossil fuels, universally and quickly, will spell only
deepening natural disasters and unparalleled human misery. It is on
this front that the entrenched interests of the fossil fuel industry and
the 1% ownership class must be taken on, and they will fight back
ferociously.
A national public emergency must be declared to battle climate change on
all fronts, just as was done in the U.S. during World War II when
industry was mobilized under federal control to build ships, airplanes,
canons, and anything else needed to fight a war. In the effort a
Michigan automobile manufacturer built a B-24 bomber plane every hour
during the war. A Maine shipyard delivered one cargo ship each day.
Several companies completed a total of 50,000 Sherman tanks between 1942
and 1945. The list goes on, as would the production of solar panels,
windmills, electric home heating units, electric vehicles of all types
and untold other products to defeat a changing climate if the economy
were mobilized.
This time, a first step would entail nationalization of the energy
industries – fossil fuels, power grids, and generation sources –
together with their banks that finance it. Simultaneously, an emergency
Congress of scientists, workers, production planners, unions,
environmentalists, citizens, oppressed communities, and others would
begin the process of planning and then implementing the way out of
fossil fuel dependency, free of profit motive constrictors. The U.S.
can do it under such leadership – it did once; only the drive for
unregulated profit stands in the way.
There are two climate problems in Maine. The first involves the rampage
of climate changes now besetting the state and what steps Mainers are
taking to attempt a mitigation of the primarily fossil-fuel, corporate
assault on nature. The second belongs to Central Maine Power alone.
The company has created a climate of haughty taking for itself and its
partners in disregard to the needs of its customers or our Earth. In
all of this at least, Central Maine Power has validated in practice its
answer to a riddle:
What do electric rate payers, environmentalists, and Indigenous peoples
have in common? A Maine utility that has found ways to screw them all
in the name of profit.
[Look for other articles in coming issues of Socialist Action that will
delve further into how climate change can be stopped.]
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