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>Long-term contracts with Vermont

As Maine transmission project advances, opponents rekindle debate over Quebec electricity supplier

Maine Public | By Steve Mistler,

Kevin Miller

Published May 19, 2023 at 10:19 AM EDT

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The Daniel-Johnson Dam in Quebec, Canada.

After millions of dollars spent on legal and electoral tussles, construction of the $1 billion transmission corridor halted by Maine voters two years ago ispoised to move forward. Opponents of the project are now focusing on an outstanding federal permitting dispute while also trying to reignite a debate over the corridor’s climate change benefits and the generation capacity of its electricity supplier, Hydro-Quebec.

Taken together, the developments highlight how the 145-mile transmission line known as the New England Clean Energy Connect, or NECEC, continues to be contentious, even after bruising and costly battles in court and the ballot box. And it may also foreshadow protracted legal and political disputes over other major energy projects that some argue are critical to shifting electricity production away from fossil fuels.

Environmental groups in Maine have long been divided on Hydro-Quebec’s generation capacity and the project’s touted greenhouse gas reductions, with opponents challenging claims that it will have a profound effect on regional emissions. Now, as project developers notch legal and regulatory victories that move the transmission line closer to reality, opponents in the Maine Legislature are questioning whether Hydro-Quebec can satisfy its U.S. export demands alongside Quebec’s domestic electrification efforts.

Last week, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, all opponents of the corridor, called on Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey to reassess its commitment to the NECEC. The project is a direct result of a contract between Hydro-Quebec, Avangrid — the parent company of Central Maine Power — and Massachusetts to help meet a Bay State law setting aggressive targets for renewable energy.

“A careful review of the new reality of electricity generation and demand in Quebec could provide Massachusetts with strong grounds for terminating the NECEC contract in favor of clean energy sources with fewer environmental impacts,” the lawmakers wrote to Healey.

The Maine lawmakers also called on Quebec Premier Francois Legault to “help dispel the myth that Quebec has so much power that it doesn’t know what to do with it all, which is clearly not accurate.”

The Canadian press reported this winter that the government-owned utility is eyeing construction of several new hydroelectric dams and other generation sources to meet demands that it says could soon outpace its current capacity. In February, Quebec was briefly forced to import U.S.-produced electricity amid a cold-snap that spiked electricity demand to historic highs.

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>>22498145

>As Maine transmission project advances, opponents rekindle debate over Quebec electricity supplier

“I think Maine lawmakers should understand, and Maine people should understand, that power was surging up to Quebec to satisfy their needs,” Pete Didisheim of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a strident opponent of the NECEC, said in February. “That is in direct contrast to the image that we've been given by Hydro-Quebec of (having) so much power … ‘it's too cheap to meter, we just want to send it your way to satisfy your needs.’”

In February, Hydro-Quebec officials sharply disputed assertions that the brief cold-snap imports to the province or the pursuit of more generation were evidence that corridor supporters had overstated the company’s role as a regional electricity partner. Responding to questions from Maine Public, Serge Abergel, chief operating officer for Hydro-Quebec’s U.S. markets, described electricity exports to Quebec as an “anomaly” attributable to a short, powerful blast of Arctic air and wind that spiked demand in the province to an all-time high.

“It's not something that we do, it's not something that we want to do,” Abergel said. “However, it is a reality. I think, as every region around us, including ourselves, are pushing this (electrification) transition, you're also pushing your grid and pushing whatever energy you have.”

Lynn St.-Laurent, a spokesperson for Hydro-Quebec, added that Quebec has only imported energy from the U.S. for a total of seven hours over a four-year period.

“The fact is, HQ is a reliable clean energy partner for New England,” she said.

Nevertheless, the New England Power Generators Association, a group that includes several corridor opponents as members, distributed a presentation highlighting the Canadian company’s recent New England exports.

One of the slides from the presentation asked, “How much can we rely on Hydro-Quebec?”

Didisheim views those reports, and the recent New England energy exports to Quebec, as evidence that corridor supporters oversold Hydro-Quebec’s generation capacity when Maine lawmakers were debating the NECEC climate benefits in 2019. At the time, Didisheim’s organization argued that more study was needed to assess Hydro-Quebec’s generation capacity.

“Because from a perspective of addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, you need to know what the source of generation is,” he said. “If they're just shifting power from other markets to satisfy the New England demand from the NECEC, then that totally alters the equation. And it could be that there's no net climate benefits.”

St.-Laurent rejected the notion that Hydro-Quebec would send anything but clean — and tracked — hydropower via the NECEC. She also said the reference to tightening supply in the company’s strategic plan was designed to meet future demand spikes attributable to a provincewide electrification push.

Nevertheless, questions about Hydro-Quebec’s export capacity continue to surface, most recently in a report by Forbes magazine headlined “Big Power Shortfall Looms After Quebec Wooed US With Cheap Hydro.”

Whether any of that scrutiny affects completion of the NECEC is unclear. Gov. Healey, a skeptic of the project when she served as Massachusetts attorney general, ran for governor on a pledge to transition the state’s electricity supply to 100% renewable power by 2030. A recent report in the Boston Globe attempted an accounting of the Bay State’s progress and it showed that the NECEC is vital to honoring that pledge.

Paid leave to get hearing

>>22498158

>>As Maine transmission project advances, opponents rekindle debate over Quebec electricity supplier

>>22497466

>>22498145

>As Maine transmission project advances, opponents rekindle debate over Quebec electricity supplier

“I think Maine lawmakers should understand, and Maine people should understand, that power was surging up to Quebec to satisfy their needs,” Pete Didisheim of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a strident opponent of the NECEC, said in February. “That is in direct contrast to the image that we've been given by Hydro-Quebec of (having) so much power … ‘it's too cheap to meter, we just want to send it your way to satisfy your needs.’”

In February, Hydro-Quebec officials sharply disputed assertions that the brief cold-snap imports to the province or the pursuit of more generation were evidence that corridor supporters had overstated the company’s role as a regional electricity partner. Responding to questions from Maine Public, Serge Abergel, chief operating officer for Hydro-Quebec’s U.S. markets, described electricity exports to Quebec as an “anomaly” attributable to a short, powerful blast of Arctic air and wind that spiked demand in the province to an all-time high.

“It's not something that we do, it's not something that we want to do,” Abergel said. “However, it is a reality. I think, as every region around us, including ourselves, are pushing this (electrification) transition, you're also pushing your grid and pushing whatever energy you have.”

Lynn St.-Laurent, a spokesperson for Hydro-Quebec, added that Quebec has only imported energy from the U.S. for a total of seven hours over a four-year period.

“The fact is, HQ is a reliable clean energy partner for New England,” she said.

Nevertheless, the New England Power Generators Association, a group that includes several corridor opponents as members, distributed a presentation highlighting the Canadian company’s recent New England exports.

One of the slides from the presentation asked, “How much can we rely on Hydro-Quebec?”

Didisheim views those reports, and the recent New England energy exports to Quebec, as evidence that corridor supporters oversold Hydro-Quebec’s generation capacity when Maine lawmakers were debating the NECEC climate benefits in 2019. At the time, Didisheim’s organization argued that more study was needed to assess Hydro-Quebec’s generation capacity.

“Because from a perspective of addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, you need to know what the source of generation is,” he said. “If they're just shifting power from other markets to satisfy the New England demand from the NECEC, then that totally alters the equation. And it could be that there's no net climate benefits.”

moar…

https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2023-05-19/as-maine-transmission-project-advances-opponents-rekindle-debate-over-quebec-electricity-supplier

>>22498187

>https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1886453721871319097

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