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MAINE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
AUGUSTA, MAINE
IN RE: ) Docket No. 2008-255MAINE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION ) November 24, 2008
Public Hearing for Finding of Public Convenience and
Necessity for the Maine Power Reliability Program
Consisting of the Construction of Approximately 350 Miles
of 34.5 kV and 115 kV Transmission Lines (MPRP)
APPEARANCES:
JAMES BUCKLEY, Hearing Examiner
SHARON REISHUS, Maine Public Utilities Commission
VENDEAN VAFIADES, Maine Public Utilities Commission JACK CASHMAN, Maine Public Utilities Commission
MR. BUCKLEY: We are going to go ahead and get
started now. Thank you. Good evening. This is a public
hearing of the Public Utilities Commission in a case that
involves Central Maine Power Company's request for
approval to build a number of transmission lines known as
the Maine Power Reliability Program or the MPRP. My name
is James Buckley, I'm a hearing examiner assigned to this
case. On my right is the chairman of the PUC,
chairperson, I should say, of the PUC, Sharon Reishus, and
on my left is Commissioner Jack Cashman, and to Jack's
left is Commissioner Vendean Vafiades. Fred Bever who is
our communications person is way back there, the other
person from the PUC. And we have a hearing reporter here
this evening so that a transcript will be made of
everybody's testimony. As many of you know, this case
involves a new 345 kilovolt line basically from Orrington
to the New Hampshire border in Eliot. In particular, the
345 line which will go from the Augusta area, go through
Litchfield, Monmouth, Greene, and into Lewiston/Auburn on
into Yarmouth is a section probably of interest tonight.
There is also a new 115 kilovolt line proposed in the
Lewiston area. For this public witness hearing, I have a
sign-up sheet. I have a bunch of names. If you want to
testify tonight, just get your name on the list.
Otherwise, you don't have to be on the list, but you will
go last if you are not on the list. There are two ways
that you can talk to the commission tonight. You can give
sworn testimony which means if -- anything that you say
can be used as evidence by the commission in this case.
The commission follows very similar rules of court in
deciding this case so that it has to consider evidence.
If you don't want to be sworn, that's fine. You can just
speak to the commission and we can listen to your
arguments much like if you send a letter, but it just
can't be used as evidence in deciding the case. The other
thing I wanted to mention, this is really a chance for
you -- citizens to give their comments or opinions to the
commission. It's not really the opportunity for you to
ask a lot of questions and for us to answer them. I will
try to straighten out any procedural questions that may
come up if people are curious. And after the recorded
part of the hearing, I will stay and try to answer some
questions. Since the commission is a deliberative body,
we and they couldn't really give our opinions about the
substance of the case anyway because they need to wait
before all the evidence is in before they decide things
such as that. I guess that's all I wanted to mention
before we get started. My intent is just to go down the
list. Actually, for those who know that they want to
speak tonight and they know they want to be sworn, I will
swear in everybody who wants right now. If you stand up
and raise your right hand. If you decide later and you
weren't sworn, I can swear you in at that time.
Raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm
that the testimony you will give in this proceeding will
be wholly truthful?
(Audience Members Sworn In.)
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. The other thing I
wanted to mention, time limits. There is a large number
of people who want to speak tonight. If people could keep
it down to about five minutes, that would give a chance
for everybody to have their say and wouldn't make -- some
people near the bottom of the list might have to leave
before they have their chance, so if you could keep that
in mind, we would appreciate it. With that, I will call
the first name which is Dominique Casavant.
MR. CASAVANT: I guess I have to stand here. My
name is Dominique Casavant. I am a Ph.D. physicist. I
have also been -- received grants to be at the Institute
For Energy Analysis in Oak Ridge and also grants to go to
the Storer Energy Institute in Golden, Colorado. I
have -- I was a member of the Vermont State Nuclear
Advisory Panel for 15 years. I have taught physics for 15
years at St. Michael's College. Much of my effort has
been in energy. I received a Fulbright grant to go to
Morocco and do work on solar energy in Morocco also. Now
I would like to indicate that, yes, I do own land where
the line is going to go through in Maine close to Allen
Pond, so it would affect me. However, I must tell you
that less you think perhaps I'm just another -- I think
perhaps I have another point that I want to make. Ladies
and gentlemen of the panel, the era of concentrated
sources of energy is over. The time has come for you to
consider distributed energy sources. We could replace our
concentrated energy sources with -- with distributed
energy sources, that is energy which is produced by roof
panels, energy which is produced by wind mills, would not
require -- would prevent us from having to consider the
idea of spending money on a technology which is past. And
so I encourage you to discourage this on the basis that
now you have an opportunity to take money which would be
spent to solidify concentrated energy sources and take
that money and see how better it could be spent on
distributed sources. So that is the gist of my particular
thing. I also would like to point out that before you do
this, you also should look at whether Central Maine Power
regulates its variation in energy, daily use of energy
well, does it really control that well, what is the excess
of energy that they have at night because they have failed
to do some kind of work that would actually store the
energy during the nighttime by having some way of storing
that energy during the night, which can be done in a
variety of ways, which I won't go into, but I'm sure that
you are familiar with, so that you can regulate the thing
so that you can take the power which is now -- that you
now have and better use it for effective distribution of
energy. That is the essence of my statement. If you have
any questions, I will be glad to answer any questions you
might have.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. Next name is Mike
Parent. While Mike is coming up, I could add that among
the things the commission will look at, if they agree that
there's a need that must be met, that CMP is supposed to
look at non-transmission things like distributed and other
kinds of generation as part of the case.
MR. PARENT: How do you do? Mike Parent, land
abutter, 156 Old Webster Road. I'm concerned with this
project. This segment 17 corridor was supposed to have
been one of the major arteries coming through the state
from Gulf Island to -- (inaudible.) This thing here
should have had a corridor where we could turn around and
compare notes. This has been the only route planned in
this segment. There are 24 abutters that turn around and
have close proximity to their homes. They all need to
have attention, they need to turn around and be considered
for other means of power poles so that the lines will go
in and get the electromagnetic fields away. One of my
concerns is electromagnetic fields. It is high. It's
going to be -- it's going to be -- at the edge of the
corridor, it's going to be 13.7 milligauss. Right now, we
have 1 milligauss. These things here by Dr. Bailey turned
around and said that that was on the low side and I
anticipate these things to be about 22 milligauss. This
is something that I'm alarmed with. There are studies
being done on an everyday basis. Nobody wants to stick
their neck out and turn around and say that there is
something going on with electromagnetic fields, but there
has to be because they keep studying it. I want the panel
to turn around and really look for the people. The clear
cutting of the buffer, we are going to turn around and
lose every tree that's out there. They are going to
chemically spray the tree stumps and everything so the
growth does not come back. We sit on an aquifer. We turn
around and want our water protected. Our well is within
100 feet of the right-of-way. This is just not
acceptable. I mean if they are going to spray chemicals,
we want to be concerned. That is our drinking water. The
other thing we have is new noise limitations. The 115
kilovolt line turns around and is basically quiet. We
hear nothing. We put this line in through our -- near our
properties, this is going to turn around and emit noises
which is going to be even worse during foul weather. And
it's also going to turn around and affect our property
values. Our property values are going to take a drop in
the soft market that we have now. We are going to turn
around and have somebody come over, pull in our yards,
there will be no buffer, we are going to see these lines,
we are going to see these poles. Our property value is
going to take a dive and we are not going to be able to
give this stuff away. We are asking the panel to turn
around and be very cautious in what they do. Other states
have a status quo where what's there, we don't go any
higher, but we would like to turn around and make sure
that you are working for the people and the other 24
abutters that are in this segment 17. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. Next name is Pat
Defilipp.
MR. DEFILIPP: Yeah, my name is Pat Defilipp.
I'm a resident of Auburn, Maine. I work for Reed & Reed.
We're a construction firm in Woolwich, Maine. We have had
the good fortune of being able to be involved with the
wind projects to date in this state, the Mars Hill
project, the Stetson project, the Beaver Ridge project,
and we are starting to work on the Kittery project. We
have seen what these projects can do for the state in
terms of jobs and in terms of tax dollars and in terms of
just an infusion of dollars to stores, hotels, that type
of thing. We just think it's important that this project
passes. Without this project, the state is going to be
limited to how many more projects are allowed. The grid
system is reaching its capacity and there is just going to
be no room for new projects to develop. And we think this
would be a real shame for the state. Wind projects are a
source of clean energy, they are going to be an economic
shot in the arm for Northern Maine, and we think it's
important that it continues. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thanks. Next name is Julian
Holmes. Speak into that microphone right there. That
will be great.
MR. HOLMES: Right here?
MR. BUCKLEY: Yes.
MR. HOLMES: Does this raise?
MR. BUCKLEY: No, it will bend, but it won't get
any higher.
MR. HOLMES: My name is Julian Holmes. I live
in Wayne. Good evening, fellow citizens, and members of
the Maine Public Utilities Commission. As a citizen
activist since the '50s, I feel compelled to note my
objection to this unseemly proposal to charge taxpayers
and rate payers with the cost of its implementation. It
is a proposal by elitists to expand beyond public needs
Maine's share of power production and power transportation
to benefit not only Maine corporate interests, but also
interests in other New England jurisdictions and other
states in our country and in Canada. It's a plan that has
allowed elitists to influence the specific location of
high tension lines to service large incineration plants.
These facilities are illegal under LD-141-2006 through a
faulty legislative procedure that precluded public
commentary that would address proposals for incinerators
that can generate hazardous air, ground and water
pollution when they are allowed to burn hazardous waste,
much of which is imported from other states. Maine
arrested the public citizen who exposed that fraud and New
Hampshire banned the incineration of demolition and
construction hazardous waste which unfortunately Maine
allows, so Maine is the willing trash repository for
hazardous waste no one wants and Maine residents suffer
the environmental consequences. Such environmental terror
is foisted on us in order to maximize corporate profits
and I resent these inappropriate threats to our health and
our welfare. Such mistreatment of taxpayers is
commonplace in Maine. For instance, we worked hard for
years to ban MTBE in Maine gasoline and we were fought and
hassled by the State Bureau of Health and the Maine DEP
which disparaged citizen complaints of the health threats
to people who must breathe the exhaust products of MTBE
combustion in motor vehicle engines. Ultimately, a
Rutgers University study confirmed the citizen complaints.
The people had been right all along. The State of Maine
was wrong. The citizens persevered and the State now says
it is enforcing a ban of automotive MTBE. May I suggest
that as in Maine's -- as in Maine's arbitrary and
capricious crime of poisoning its people with MTBE, your
proposed expansion of the electric power grid in Maine and
the unresolved health aspects of such a move are once
again arbitrary and capricious -- capricious invasions of
our peaceful communities and potential attacks on our
collective health. One of the most insidious aspects of
your power grid crime is the power grab and cover-up of
your real reasons for the theft of our space, namely, to
benefit your corporate friends. Your arrogant attack on
the commonweal is naked, publicity -- publicly financed
corporate terrorism. It does not befit your office of
public responsibility. Please bring such activities to a
halt. Sincerely. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: If you do have a written
statement, you can leave it with the hearing reporter.
Thank you.
MR. HOLMES: I will be glad to answer any
questions if you have any.
MR. BUCKLEY: Guess there are no questions.
Next person is Gary Robitaille.
MR. ROBITAILLE: Gary Robitaille, land abutter.
You can relax, I don't think you are a terrorist or a
thief. I do have great concerns. I would like first to
request the commission to expand the boundaries, consider
legislation or a ruling to give 100 meters per 100,000
kilowatts. I abut the land. With the current
right-of-ways, their right-of-way according to them is
going to be right through my house. In order to do this,
I have to at this point finance my own lawyer to go do a
deed research to defend CMP from, you know, plowing next
to my yard. We have great concerns. That's a lot of
power they are planning to drop through and the
right-of-way they are trying to fit is a tiny corridor.
The reason they are choosing this, it's an existing
corridor. I have no doubt we need to update the grid, but
right there, it really needs to be looked at. CMP has
been fairly irresponsive in doing that in our view. We do
have concerns in the long-term about how they treat the
land afterwards, noise, and the fact that it's a lot more
than the existing corridor. This is huge and it's going
to damage not only property values, but the noise. In our
house, you can currently hear the 145s, so I'm sure we
will hear the 345s. So I encourage you, please, look out
for the land abutters. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. Susan Hayward.
MS. HAYWARD: Thank you. My name is Susan
Hayward. I'm president of the Stanton Bird Club and there
are several Stanton Bird Club members with me tonight.
Just stand quickly. Thanks.
The Stanton Bird Club founded in 1919 owns and
manages wildlife sanctuary property in Maine, primarily
two sanctuaries, one here in Lewiston at 357 acres
called -- (inaudible) -- Nature Sanctuary right here in
the City of Lewiston and the other one is Stanton Bird
Club owns and manages a 160-acre wildlife sanctuary called
Woodbury Wildlife Sanctuary in Monmouth and Litchfield
which would be segment 15 of concern here. We have
provided continuous best practices stewardship of this
property with its inclusive Davis family cemetery since
1929. It will be our 80th anniversary there next year.
The proposed alternative CMP route in order to avoid the
Tacoma Lakes region cuts through the heart of this
sanctuary, including our gateway entrance area, the
cemetery, wildlife habitats will be destroyed, an
important wildlife corridor will be permanently disrupted,
environmental education programming will be diminished,
and protected open land for public access will be lost.
In the whole 350-mile widening project for increased
electrical reliability across Maine, this is the only, I'm
going to say that again, this is the only wildlife
sanctuary directly affected and requiring land acquisition
to accomplish the goals of Central Maine Power Company.
This is an opportunity for Central Maine Power Company to
show the rate payers of Maine and the rate payers of New
England that conservation is indeed a priority for this
corporation. The officers, directors and members of the
Stanton Bird Club are all asking that an alternative route
be determined to avoid Woodbury Wildlife Sanctuary. It's
time for CMP to step up to the plate, put wild lands
protection first, show their true conservation colors, and
allow this unique local national resource to remain
unscarred and available to the wildlife and the public.
Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Next name is Joseph Nota.
MR. NOTA: Good evening. My name is Joseph
Nota. I live at 17 Riley Street here in Lewiston. My
wife and I have resided in our home for over 30 years.
The location of our home is exactly what we were looking
for. We are very concerned about the proposed CMP
345-kilovolt transmission line project that will be going
through our area. This existing corridor which already
has 115 kilovolts abuts our property. There are three
very important issues that we have about this project.
Number one, health issues. The serious effect of EMFs,
electromagnetic fields, and cancer related deaths,
illnesses such as breast cancer, childhood leukemia, and
its long-term effects with other diseases. We have a
daughter that was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the
age of 13. Today, she's insulin dependent. The family
that we purchased our home from, over 30 years ago, they
also had a daughter that was diagnosed with diabetes.
Coincidental? Maybe, maybe not. We also lost family pets
to tumorous cancer. As I speak, my wife and I are dealing
with our own health problems. There are nine other
families on our street. Throughout the years, we have
shared the grieve with our neighbors, with the death of
husbands, wives and grandmothers, for a total of five
decedents on our street. Next issue, environment. How
will this project affect the wildlife that surrounds this
area? How will this project protect them? How will the
project be maintained maintenance-wise and the growth of
future trees and other vegetation? Will the use of
herbicides be used or other chemicals, and if so, how will
it be prevented from encroachment on my property and
others? What will happen health-wise and its long-term
effects. The constant noise pollution that will be
emitted from the power lines, more humming will be coming
from those lines than there is now. Finally, property
value. This project will definitely have a big impact on
my property. No one will want to purchase a home that
borders a power line of this size. I'm sure the members
of this commission wouldn't. Property will devalue when
this project is completed if it hasn't already. Of all
the above, how can this be remedied? In closing, I would
like to thank the commission for listening to my statement
and we would like to continue to have our retirement home
a serene house and not a death house.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you, Mr. Nota. Next name is
Robert Fogg, and after Mr. Fogg, Tammy Noyes.
MR. FOGG: Good evening. My name is Robert
Fogg. I'm a resident of Lewiston. I live on Old Greene
Road and I live next to the power lines. Like many of the
people that just spoke, my wife and I have concerns about
the increased size of the lines and the power going
through, how it will affect our property value, how it
will affect our neighbors' children. I think there is
many issues here that I would urge you folks to take a
real hard look at. For us, this seems to be a bit of a
bitter pill to swallow. However, what makes it I think a
little more bitter is that most of this power from what I
understand is going out of state. In fact, from what I
understand, 92 percent of this power is going out of
state. I guess I don't understand how this is going to
benefit the people of Maine, especially when we are I
believe looking at a -- excuse me -- a rate increase of
8 percent by CMP. It would be one thing to be able to
deal with this if it was going to benefit the people of
Maine and stay in the State of Maine, however, that's not
the case and I would strongly urge you again to take a
good hard look at this and realize it looks like there is
many people that are going to be affected for the people
in Southern New England and it seems that happens a lot
here in Maine, so thank you for your time.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. Tammy Noyes and then
Jean Elie. While we're waiting for Ms. Noyes to come up,
I can say CMP filed the case and said the reasons for it
are for reliability reasons so that the grid in their
service territory in Maine is in the condition that it's
supposed to be like on the hottest summer days so that the
wires don't overheat and can provide power and be safe, so
CMP filed the case just for reasons for Maine, not for --
for delivering power out of state. Go ahead.
MS. NOYES: We are referred to as Section 17,
but we have names. I'm Tammy, I live with my husband
David, and our two wonderful boys, Cameron who is eight
and Christian who is three years old. My boys are
asthmatic. My oldest son Cameron is a sever asthmatic, so
to keep him safe, we tore up all the rugs and we put down
laminate flooring. We bought a wonderful home on a dead
end street so they could play with no traffic so the
children would be safe. We moved into a home on a
relatively safe neighborhood where all the neighbors are
very nice just so we could keep our children safe. After
we moved there, my son Cameron got two lymphomas, one
under his armpit the size of a baseball that had to be
surgically removed, the other the size of a marble in his
throat the doctors are watching closely. I did some
research and -- at the library and a book by Ellen
Sugarman warning electricity you may have may be hazardous
to your death. In a 1989 OTA report, epidemiologist
Genevieve Malouski from John Hopkins University reported
on a four-year study of 50,000 New York telephone company
employees with varying EMF exposure. The study found
workers with high exposures had high rates of cancer, for
some as high as seven times the expected rate,
particularly leukemia and lymphoma, workers with the
highest exposure, nearly twice the amount as other
cancers. So we are doing all this to keep our family
safe. CMP is putting in an upgrade on an existing line
that gives off massive EMF. We are getting conflicting
reports on how many feet away we are supposed to be. All
I know is that we are just 20 steps away from CMP's line
from our home. I don't think anyone would want to buy a
home with the upgraded lines if they wanted to keep their
family safe like we do. I'm doing everything I can and
capable of doing to keep my family safe. That's why I'm
standing before you elected officials so you can hopefully
start helping us as well. I really don't want to see or
leave the home we love so much and put so much money into
on a budget. We don't have money to put into another home
or to start over. It would truly be a hardship. Thank
you for your time on this very important matter.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. After Jean Elie is
Ruth Benjamin.
MS. ELIE: Hi, I'm Jean Elie and I would be an
abutter to the proposed 345-kilovolt line in Lewiston and
I feel that the overhead lines proposed would expose me
and my residents to real immeasurable effects from
magnetic electric -- the fields and noise and I feel very
strongly that we and especially our children should not
have potentially fatal risks imposed on us. There is also
an obvious negative effect on our property values. CMP
might try to trivialize these effects, but in talking to
several real estate agents, I have yet to find one that
thinks there will be no negative impact on our property
value. I read some articles trying to look at EMF and
found a couple of things I think are of note. The World
Health Organization concluded that a policy recommendation
that came out in 2007 that power frequency magnetic fields
are classified as possibly carcinogenic, IARC2B
carcinogens, on the basis of childhood leukemia. And the
Institution of Engineering and Technology also states that
current assessment is that there is credible scientific
evidence of a possible risk from electric and magnetic
fields for childhood leukemia, and so therefore, I would
like to ask where options to reduce risks exist, I would
think that it is probably sensible to take them. I would
urge the PUC to consider burying the lines through areas
where they come within 300 feet of homes or schools. A
cost comparison -- and I did ask this question at a
technical conference and they said that this was not
looked into -- of using HVDC light technology in burying
the lines would show this would be a more cost effective
method of burying. And I do have an article I can give to
you on that. The cost savings of preventing fatal cases
of childhood leukemia should be considered. I also feel
there are probably alternate routes that should be
considered that may still use CMP corridors, but would not
be the massive eye sore corridor proposed through our
Lewiston neighborhood. It will expose abutting homeowners
to two 115-kilovolt lines as well as the proposed 345 for
a total of 575 kilovolts. If it approves the project, the
PUC should set some conditions now that more and more
information is emerging about negative effects of exposure
to electric and magnetic fields that limit the lines going
through any corridor in Maine. As Mike Parent mentioned,
we have been told that we are currently exposed to about
1.2 milligauss of magnetic field in segment 17 at the edge
of the right-of-way. The proposed 345 will increase that
exposure to 13.6 milligauss. That's 11-1/2 times the
exposure that we now have. The MPRP's need for new
transmission lines is based on a model of power generation
that relies on a few power plants to supply electricity
for many residents across a large area and it's going to
require a huge investment in those substations and power
lines. I feel that Maine should be looking at a model of
distributed generation with generator stations close to
where the load is used to help produce the need for
additional transmission lines to handle peak demand. In
light of all that is currently occurring in our economy,
we will be negatively impacted for a number of years and I
feel that CMP's model assumes too much growth and too high
peaks. Continuing to construct more and more power lines
is just encouraging high electric consumption which I'm
sure CMP wants because it means increased revenues, but it
makes more sense to use those funds that will be needed to
build these power plants and lines in our region to
stimulate conservation that would be good for both the
local economy and the environment. CMP manages power
lines, so of course their answer to energy problems is to
build more power lines. I also have an article I would
like to give to you that in September of this year, from
the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
titled Perfecting the Power Grid and it states that soon
digital control of the power grid with comprehensive
electric sensors operating at the same speed as the power
flow will allow utilities to reroute power instantly and
utilities will be able to increase existing lines capacity
without exceeding any thermal limits or requiring new
lines. Digital electronic control will make the delivery
system self-correcting and self-healing and problems will
be islanded rather than cascading and there should be no
outages. I assume CMP is aware of this technology, but is
trying to railroad these new lines through to increase
their profits before Maine's commission has time to
thoroughly examine these alternatives that would prove
that this project is unnecessary for reliable power in
Maine. Please take the necessary action to protect our
rate payers from the unnecessary costs of this project and
to protect the residents and their homes from health and
environmental impacts that these lines will impose. Thank
you.
MR. BUCKLEY: After Ruth Benjamin is George
Benjamin.
MR. BENJAMIN: Good evening. Thank you for --
MR. BUCKLEY: You must be George.
MR. BENJAMIN: I must be George. And I'm
speaking for both me and my wife. And my wife and I are
very supportive of all the presentations and are here to
show that support. And we are also very interested in
knowing what's happening in the Durham, Auburn part of the
area and we would like very much to get some information
in that regard. Thank you very much and good luck.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. Mr. Benjamin, if you
want to wait until the end, we do have some maps here, if
you want to look, and I can try to help you find where on
the map you are located.
MR. BENJAMIN: Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Next person is Ray Leblond and
after Ray is Senator John Nutting.
MR. LEBLOND: Good evening. My name is Ray
Leblond. I live at 1087 Main Street in Lewiston. We were
told recently by a CMP rep that a substation was to be
built approximately 500 feet from our property, 20-acre
large substation. With the reports of EMF health issues
being inconclusive, we are obviously concerned that a
substation of that size could have damaging effects to our
health, not to mention the negative effect it will have on
surrounding property values. We hope that CMP would
consider coming up with an alternate plan that is less
harmful to the people of Lewiston and their property
values. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. After Senator Nutting
is George Viscarelli.
MR. NUTTING: Good evening. First off, thank
you very much for having this public hearing. It's not
only -- these lines are not only concerns to residents of
Lewiston/Auburn, they are very much a lot of concern in my
state senate district which is Greene and Leeds and Wales.
I am -- I'm wearing one of my agricultural ties just to
remind you that these proposed increases in transmission
lines really go through a lot of agricultural land being
used for crops, animals, vegetables, and there is great
concern there. By my calculations, 1-1/2 million dollars
could be used to put solar panels on 250,000 homes, and to
me, that is something that I'm glad to learn from the
public advocate is another issue that you will be looking
at and considering. Another thing the public advocate
mentioned and I was glad to learn was that there is
possibly interest from another company of putting an
undersea line from Wiscasset to Boston. I think that is
another option that I want you to -- urge you to strongly
look at. But in talking -- the last point I want to make
is in talking to friends that have businesses and homes in
Aroostook County where they are served by the Public
Service Company which is hooked to Canada, their rates for
electricity are much, much lower than ours. And I know
that we in this area are not hooked to Canada because
there's a short distance between Bangor Hydro's lines and
Public Service lines that we need connected, but I urge
you to also consider the fact that do we really need to be
part of ISO New England in the future shipping all that
power to Massachusetts and Connecticut through these huge
lines, would it make more sense to hook Bangor Hydro to
Public Service and have us rely upon Canada rather than
Southern New England. And with that, I want to thank you
again for the opportunity to testify this evening.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. After Mr. Viscarelli
is -- I think it's Claire Dumais.
MR. VISCARELLI: I changed my mind about making
a statement right now.
MR. BUCKLEY: Okay. Sure. Then Claire Dumais
and Betty Turgeon after Ms. Dumais.
MS. DUMAIS: Good evening, Commissioners. My
name is Elaine Dumais. Sorry it looks like Claire.
MR. BUCKLEY: Sorry. I should know that.
MS. DUMAIS: I live at 228 Dyer Road in
Lewiston. Like many people here tonight, I live on
property adjacent to CMP's corridor where a proposed
345-kilovolt line would be located as part of the MPRP
project. The construction of this project would clear-cut
the existing tree filled buffer standing between my home
and the current set of 115 kV lines which stand 216 feet
away. It would place an additional 75-foot tall set of
poles supporting the new line within 125 feet of my home.
These poles would be 30 feet taller than those already
existing in the right-of-way and would tower 40 feet
higher than my house. Research on the harmful effects of
EMF from high voltage power lines is controversial and
inconclusive. Nevertheless, a link to childhood leukemia
has been established and is enough to create the
perception of a health hazard and resulting fear in the
marketplace. In my case, prospective buyers would clearly
see a large high voltage power line within direct view and
close to my house. Additionally, my property's scenic
vista would be visually polluted forever changing its
natural beauty. This vista is a large part of the appeal
of my home and makes its location desirable. And you will
see a picture attached. According to data published in
the Journal of Appraisal Research, a home's value is
significantly impacted when the property is in close
proximity and has a pronounced view of high voltage power
lines. Realtors who are driving prospective buyers to
listed houses report that some buyers will not get out of
the car to even look at such homes and will prefer
competing homes in a similar price range. In a depressed
real estate market, this could effectively make a home
nearly impossible to sell. Although time may help ease
some buyers' avoidance, not every homeowner who lives near
the corridor plans to remain there for the next 10 years
waiting for that time. Alternatives to this project such
as rebuilding and reconfiguring the lines and existing
clearings should be considered. Configurations that
preserve tree buffers as much as possible and place lines
farther away from residences should be applied. Attached
is a cross-section of the configuration that conforms to
T56 standards that I put together and could be used in my
neighborhood as well as others in Lewiston. Arguments
will be made that these accommodations would increase the
project cost, but the comparative costs to individual
homeowners is much higher both in lost equity and quality
of life. In conclusion, like many Maine people, my home
is my sanctuary and my largest financial investment. I
plan to use its equity to help fund my retirement.
Although I might understand the probable need to upgrade
Maine's transmission grid, I would implore CMP to do so in
a manner that is socially responsible and preserves the
health, financial assets and quality of life its abutters
now enjoy, so I would say to CMP give us a power grid that
provides for the needs of Maine without taking resources
from your neighbors to achieve it. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: After Betty Turgeon is Ethan
Miller.
MS. TURGEON: My name is Betty Turgeon and my
husband Norm and I live at 198 Ferry Road where we have
had the house for 25 years. We have raised our family
there. We have a grandchild coming in April. We are
abutters with 1184 feet along the corridor. Our major
concern is the clear cutting of that entire corridor. At
present, the two 115 lines are not visible from our
property. If this buffer was indeed clear-cut, it would
be a clear-through view of everything behind our property.
And our corridor, as has been stated before, instead of --
contains a total of 575 kilovolts. The EMF fields are a
concern, even if not positively proved. The number of
studies bear witness to the fact that we need to err on
the side of caution. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. After Ethan Miller is
Bruce Damon.
MR. MILLER: Good evening. My name is Ethan
Miller. I'm part of an organization called Clark Mountain
Sanctuary which is a conservation organization that's an
abutter to the power line corridor in Greene. I'm also
here speaking generally as a concerned citizen. First, I
want to say that I'm really honored to be speaking with my
fellow citizens here in this room who have done such
incredible research to learn about the issues, research
that none of us are paid to do and it appears that the
folks that are paid to do it may not actually be doing
that research, so I want to honor the people in the room
who are doing what others -- what we are paying others to
do. I want to say that this whole model of economic
development that's represented here by these power lines
is a bankrupt model of economic development. We are
talking about a continuation of a long tradition of what
some people might call colonialism here in Maine. This is
a tradition of Maine being a place where we generate
things and we generate resources and we ship them out of
state for the profit of large corporations and a small
group of wealthy elite. And this continues that tradition
quite well. We may say that Maine is going to move from
being what was once a paper colony to now being a trash
colony as we -- as we burn construction and demolition
debris shipped in from other states in order to generate
power, not to mention burning trees. Biomass to me is a
fairly dumb way to generate electricity. Take a tree that
takes 40 years to grow and then burn it to make energy,
sounds like a pretty bad idea. I think that because --
Professor Casavant's model of distributed generation I
think is a crucial one that we need to consider. I think
we also need to understand that there's an economic model
that corresponds to that distributed generation. It's
become really clear to us in this economy that is
controlled by giant corporations, that when just a few of
those corporations fall part, the whole economy falls like
dominos. So here again, we are continuing the tradition
of having a power structure that is relying on one large
corporation, when instead, we could choose models of
economic development that are actually developing
alongside of that distributed generation, actually helping
distribute ownership and control of the generation where
we put the control cooperatively in the hands of the
communities that are benefiting from that energy. And I'm
certain that that would create more stable jobs, probably
create more jobs, and certainly a more stable economy for
the people of Maine. But I guess I also want to suggest,
without knowing you all and recognizing that, that I'm not
entirely convinced -- I would need to be convinced by this
commission that you are willing to consider those kinds of
alternatives. When I look at the name of this hearing,
the power reliability hearing, and I learn -- we have
learned earlier that that is actually directly from CMP's
proposal, it sounds to me like you just took some of CMP's
propaganda and turned it into the name of the public
hearing, so that makes me wonder who you are actually
working for. I mean it's not -- it's not too hard to see
that this actually is about shipping power out of state
and it's not just about reliability for the people of
Maine. So again, we know who pays you, but who are you
actually working for. I've been to a lot of public
hearings. It's clear to me that public hearings are
not -- are very rarely if ever actually public listenings.
It's not a democratic process to have appointed
commissioners make decisions and not be accountable to the
citizens. I just want to be clear about that. And I want
to remind people in this room that if we are going to
create democracy in this situation, we need to organize
and we need to organize outside this room and we need to
apply pressure in all kinds of different ways. There's a
sign-up sheet out on the table for people who want to get
involved in that process. And I also just want to end
with a quick little story. After the revolutionary war,
the great proprietors from Massachusetts claimed that they
owned Maine. Meanwhile, all kinds of Mainers were
settling down and doing hard work to create farms here.
And when the great proprietors sent their surveyors to
Maine communities to try to evict people so they could
continue that process of colonialism, these farmers in
Lewiston and Greene and Leeds and other towns all along
this power line corridor organized. And in the middle of
the night, they dressed up in costumes and they ran the
surveyors off. And I want to suggest that if this process
continues like the runaway train that it looks like it's
going to be, that we might want to learn a little bit from
our predecessors. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Next is Bruce Damon and after
Bruce Damon is Art Schaefer.
MR. DAMON: Good evening, Mr. Buckley. This is
the area that we are concerned about. I'm here to
represent the Stanton Bird Club of Lewiston/Auburn and its
400 members in regards to the proposed rerouting of the
354 K right-of-way in the Litchfield/Monmouth section of
3025 and 212. The map I gave you shows the area in
question. The blue area is the Stanton Bird Club Woodbury
Nature Sanctuary. This is the only conservation land and
only nature sanctuary that is directly affected by the --
by the proposal. As it is proposed, the new bypass
would -- the new route would bypass a number of
residential properties in and around Woodbury Pond and it
would unfortunately create a huge bi-section of wildlife
corridor that is in excess of 2,000 acres that exists
north and east of Woodbury. The Stanton Bird Club
property would be deforested to the extent of about
17 acres. And as you can see, there would be another area
of about 10 acres, a triangular shaped piece, that would
be isolated between the old power line and the new one.
This area of course is going to be devastated because of
the impact from both sides. In addition, the proposed
route would desecrate a century old family cemetery that
exists on a property that Stanton has protected for the
last 80 years. At the October 30 technical session, when
questioned why the new right-of-way was necessary, CMP
responded that there were issues regarding the placement
of pole 186 in the water at the outlet of Woodbury Pond.
It seems unreasonable to assume this is an insurmountable
situation considering the complexity of some of the other
water crossings along the route, particularly the ones in
Bucksport, around the former Maine Yankee site, and the
major river crossings of the Androscoggin, Kennebec,
Penobscot, and in particular, the Piscataqua down in
Portsmouth. As with most complicated issues, there are
usually more than one answer depending upon how you ask
the question. At the technical conference, I asked an
engineering question and I got an engineering answer, but
I wonder if I had asked about the health related issues of
EMF and electromagnetic fields, if I would have gotten a
different response. With only a 215-foot wide
right-of-way and with the high density of properties
around Woodbury Pond, I wonder if the real issue for the
new six miles of right-of-way really isn't one of trying
to establish sufficient clearances from the new 345 K line
to those existing structures. We have already heard that
here in Lewiston, there are already concerns about them
working within a 400-foot corridor. Here, we are talking
about one only half as wide. The N-5 route, while we
realize this is probably too far along in engineering to
be stopped, according to the original proposal and all the
published documents up until the end of September, created
no new right-of-way. This alternative route creates in
excess of six miles of new right-of-way, cuts through
forested undeveloped property which will lead to
degradation of that area from a wildlife standpoint as
well as from the -- will lead to additional unrestricted
uses by things like snowmobiles, ATVs, will cause erosion
problems, and there will be additional spraying to
maintain that by the power company. I have some questions
that -- I'm going to leave this with the commission, but I
have a couple questions I wish the PUC could seek response
from CMP, and if we could get an answer, it would be
wonderful. Will the new right-of-way as proposed be used
only for the placement of 3025? That's what shows
currently. If that is so, why is it requested to be
250 feet in width instead of 170 foot which would be the
minimum length for a single set of poles, or at the
minimum, the 215 feet that they were requesting for
multiple sets which included 212, 41 and 3025 in this
area? Will the old right-of-way still be maintained in
its capacity for 212 and 41? As an alternative -- and
this is where I have tried to show you on the larger
document -- could 3025 stay within the existing corridor
up to pole 178, which is just barely to the right off
the -- off the picture, run south of the existing power
line, take out the corner at line -- at pole 186 and carry
over where you see them -- where there's a proposed
extension of the right-of-way, a small block that goes
down to the water at pole 188, could the line -- as I had
drawn a series of yellow dots across, could the line just
cross there so it did not have to have a pole in Woodbury
Pond? It would take the sharp angle out at the outlet of
Woodbury Pond and would seem to be certainly a doable
route. Now it may require that the poles there carry both
212 which is a 115 K line and 3025, but that's been done
in a number of other locations, so certainly not a
technical difficulty to accomplish. Unless of course they
want to throw in that it's cost prohibitive which for two
poles and with the elimination of the others doesn't seem
to be realistic. As a second alternative, if it is
determined that the new six miles of corridor that
devastates over 200 acres of this new property must lie to
the north of the existing power line, could it be
relocated from up by the golf course -- which if you look
at the smaller drawing in the middle, it goes up and
there's a small family cemetery right at the top up there
where it crosses Pete's Hill Road and I have drawn a line
down. That line goes down around the back side of our
pond and actually heads towards the Day's Corner
Substation which is in the existing right-of-way. That
would -- that area there would completely circumvent the
nature sanctuary and would be -- would be significantly
more distant from our property. What if any are the
recognized impacts on wildlife migration and reproduction
due to 345 K lines? I have not heard any discussion about
that, partly because most of this is an existing power
line. However, now, they are talking about six miles of
new corridor that's in open ground, so it could have a
significant impact on migration and reproduction. CMP
spoke about the social impact of the expansion of the
existing right-of-way, but never addressed the social
impact of the new six miles of corridor. The Woodbury
Sanctuary has served the educational and environmental
communities of Kennebec and Androscoggin Counties for the
last 80 years. The destruction of this unique parcel with
its irreplaceable ability to sustain and nurture all of
God's creatures for generations to come must not be
allowed to happen. Many of us can remember the odor and
brown foam that used to contaminate the rivers of our
state, all of which were the result of uncontrolled
progress. We must never forget it takes generations to
undo the mistakes of well-intentioned proposals, but the
new right-of-way should not become another example for our
children to regret. Maine, the way life should be, should
not just be a rhetorical gimmick for the benefit of the
tourists. It should reflect the pride and independence
that makes us the great State of Maine. I know that I
speak from citizens here when I ask the commission to use
sound judgment, common sense and balance as you decide on
the merits of the case before you. Please do not be
swayed by the economy or politicians to permit this
proposal to become a reality unless you firmly believe
that it's truly in the best interest of Maine and its
citizens for decades to come. We know -- please know that
we all place our respect and trust in you and that you
will do your very best to earn that respect and trust in
return. Thank you very much.
MR. BUCKLEY: After Art Schaefer is Will Neils.
MR. SCHAEFER: Good evening. I live in
Cumberland, and at the beginning of September, I was
approached by CMP and advised that they were going to
build a substation right next to my back yard. It was
going to be a hundred million dollar -- it is going to be
a hundred million dollar substation. Their representative
took me out in my back yard and said everything you can
see as far as you can see is going to be bulldozed and
leveled and going to become concrete towers and lights and
wires and put quite bait of fear into -- into me, but
assured me that I had nothing to worry about, that they
were going to run wires over my property, but they would
compensate me for my land and I wouldn't have to worry
about anything. So at their request, I signed an
authorization to allow them to come onto the property for
survey work and they did that and they did their drilling
and I waited and I didn't hear anything. And weeks and
weeks later, I called them up and -- I haven't heard
anything. They were supposed to come over and sit down
with me and my wife and explain things. Don't worry about
it, they said. I waited some more weeks. I called them
up again and I said, I'm getting real concerned, I don't
want to lose any rights. You have nothing to worry about.
We are going to be a good neighbor, I will come over and
see you. Well, another month goes by and I called the PUC
and I said, gee, I think I better become an intervener, I
don't know what's going on, I'm not hearing anything from
these people. They have got my authorization. You can't
do that anymore, it's too late. So I guess the reason I'm
here is I heard a lot about them being good neighbors and
treating people well. I got a little suspicious about how
this operation is being run. And it could be
coincidental, I don't think they sit there and worry about
me and tried to set me up or anything like that, but it
doesn't seem that things are being done the way they
should be done. And people should be kept informed,
especially when so much is at stake as we have heard
tonight from so many people. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Mr. Schaefer, it's never too late
to file a petition and intervene. You can't participate
in the conferences that have already taken place, but
going forward, you can still file a petition, if you want
to.
MR. SCHAEFER: I was given misinformation.
Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: As I said before, Will Neils is
next and then Mary Hunter.
MR. NEILS: You have a drummer back there.
MR. BUCKLEY: Evidently.
MR. NEILS: It sounds like a power plant. I bet
these folks here know what that sounds like, right? Do
you? Okay, so let's start out here. I'm from Appleton,
Maine, and this expansion plan, as ridiculous as it is, is
intended to travel through Appleton. And what's this --
the CMP -- the lights will not stay on if we don't do
this, it's really about reliability and keeping the lights
on. That seems -- that seems like totally disingenuous
coming from a corporation, but they always seem that way,
don't they? The trouble we've got here I think is that we
are being told we have to do this. And it's typical of
course, that's always what you elected or in this case
appointed -- you are appointed by the governor, right --
I'm not allowed to -- people usually do what they want to
do for the corporations and all the folks with lots of
cash. So anyways, I'm really against this. I think there
is probably I hazard to guess thousands of people around
the state who are against it now, and if tens of thousands
of people in the state understood what it was, I suspect
there would be tens of thousands of people around the
state who are against it. You can probably do the math
out. You don't seem to be hearing a lot of support here,
do you? I'm interested in this whole biomass concept.
Green and renewable apparently are terms which
corporations, bureaucrats and politicians like to apply to
burning wood for electricity. It's interesting also they
like to apply that term to burning arsenic treated wood,
PVC piping, Mercury lead paint and other highly toxic
materials imported from Connecticut, Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, places like that, which ironically are the
places which apparently need all this power, right, that
we need to get down to them so quick. It's really
important, chop, chop, that we work hard up here in this
industrial colony that Maine has always been for these
nice yuppies in Southern New England. So I think it's
really important when we frame this appropriately, when we
think about it, when we think about who is going to pay,
the communities which have already paid with decades of
cancer in the Androscoggin Valley who produced the paper
so these folks could type their important letters down in
Boston and the other communities which have been affected
by high tension power lines already, people who have
already gotten sick, the lady who spoke here so eloquently
about her son. And I think it's really, really important
that you strap up and do your jobs and recognize that the
citizens of this state have no interest in this happening,
that we recognize the power grid is already delivering
enough power to us, and if 30 to maybe 45 percent of the
power produced in the State of Maine is already traveling
out of state to these yuppies, why should we suddenly
produce more for them so that out of state owned companies
get to make the profits while we get all the toxins,
cancer and the death. I think I'm going to be against
that forever.
MS. HUNTER: Hi. My name is Mary Hunter. I
live on Pinewoods Road in Lewiston. I want to thank you
for hearing my testimony. As a resident in a neighborhood
abutting the power line corridor, I like many others are
very concerned with the environmental and property value
effects of having a total of 575 kilovolts of power
marching through a residential neighborhood. Also, like
many others, I'm also concerned with the possible health
effects of EMF, but it's the noise I want to mention
today. There's considerable research on the bad effects
of noise on health. Stress, depression, chronic insomnia
and even heart disease have been reliable attributed to
noise. Children are said to be particularly liable to the
bad effects of noise and children with behavioral issues
are particularly susceptible and this is relevant because
there are two therapeutic foster homes in our neighborhood
very close to the power lines, so I think that is really
something to be taken very seriously. A contributor to
this World Health Organization report on night noise
guidelines, which I will leave with you, recommended the
noise level for children be kept below 30 decibels at
night. That's 30 decibels total, so if the lines make
about 25 decibels of noise, which is what I read, but I
can't remember where I read it, it leaves very little room
for other noise before the total noise is potentially
unhealthy. So I really do urge you to take all possible
health issues for all possible people into account in
thinking about this project. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Jim Parakilas. And after that is
Sandra Brown-Eustis.
MR. PARAKILAS: Good evening. My name is James
Parakilas. I live at 85 Pinewoods Road by the power line
corridor and I'm an intervener in the MPRP case. The
point I would like the Public Utilities Commission to
consider is that MPRP is out of date. That may seem
surprising because the proposal is fairly new, but it
rests on projections of growing energy needs in Maine and
in New England in the coming years as well as the
presumption that we will continue to generate and
distribute electric power as we have done for decades only
on an ever increasing scale. Those projections and
presumptions have been invalidated by two events that have
taken place in the last couple of months. The first is
the worldwide recession precipitated by the seizing of the
American financial system. And the second is the election
of a new president and congress pledged to create and
implement a national energy program that will rapidly
reduce the amount of energy we consume and rapidly alter
the ways we produce and distribute energy. The first of
these events, the recession, means that whatever CMP tells
us about the urgency of expanding our transmission system
no longer applies. The company threatens that it will not
be able to supply our growing energy needs in a few years
if it is not allowed to build these giant new transmission
lines, but the recession we have entered is in fact
setting back any growth in our energy consumption. Just
as Americans are now using 8 percent less gasoline than
they were a few months ago, they are also using less
electric power and they are not about to start increasing
their electric consumption any time soon. This means at
the least, that we have some time to see what a new
national energy policy brings us. President Elect Obama
promised us an energy policy that's built on conservation
and on producing more of our energy locally. He has
promised us that the United States can reduce its energy
consumption by an astonishing 80 percent. The MPRP by
contrast is built on the premises of the Bush era, ever
increasing energy production and consumption and an ever
more interconnected distribution system. Given that the
recession gives us the opportunity to wait and see what
the new national policy on energy will be and what it can
do for us, why on earth would we rush into spending a
billion-and-a-half dollars in the middle of a recession on
a project that will evidently be out of step with that new
policy before these lines are even built. Let me add that
CMP itself doesn't believe in its projections about rising
energy needs in Maine. They don't believe their own
figures. How do I know that? Because if they believed
that Maine's energy consumption was going to grow
significantly in the next two decades, they would have
designed the MPRP to deliver a significant increase in
electric power to customers in Maine, but they haven't.
They have designed the project almost entirely to deliver
power to the New Hampshire border and from there south.
So what would Mainers get from this? Well, to build it,
we would of course get higher electrical builds in the
middle of a recession. We would get increased health
risks for those who live alongside it, risks like
increased incidents of childhood leukemia. We would get
noise pollution. We would get destruction of our trees
and our habitat and the lowering of our property values,
but we would not get any significant increase in our power
supply, and since we are not likely to need that anyway,
MPRP would not in fact make our power supply any more
reliable. What would be reliable is that we would be
paying for this, that the power would go south of here,
and that the profit would go to the owners of CMP, that is
to say a corporation headquartered in Madrid. This plan
was never designed with the best interest of Mainers at
heart, and now that we are on the verge of a new energy
order in this country, we would be just plain nuts to buy
into it when we can perfectly well wait a little while,
see what the new energy order is going to be, and figure
out an energy plan for Maine that makes sense for us
within that new order. Thank you very much for your time.
MR. BUCKLEY: After Sandra Brown-Eustis is Liam
Burnell.
MS. BROWN-EUSTIS: My name is Sandra
Brown-Eustis and I live at 166 Old Webster Road which
directly abuts the power line, so I'm an intervener in
this case. I have a couple of different issues I would
like to address to your meeting here this evening. One of
them is the noise levels that are generated by the
electrical overhead wires. Recent studies indicate that
noise tends to aggravate -- agitate the people that have
Alzheimer's and I know this to be a fact because my mother
lives with me and she has Alzheimer's. The increase in
the noise level would therefore affect her inner ear so
that she would constantly be agitated hearing the noise,
whether it was damp or not. The second thing that I'm
very concerned about is the erosion that would occur along
the abutment because I'm already suffering the effects of
ATVs and whatnot that use the corridor for recreation.
The last rainstorm we had, which was very severe, I have a
bridge that leads into my property and the water was
probably not even a foot below the bridge, so I anticipate
that if the greenery is removed, that this will only get
worse. And I'm also concerned because as other abutters
have mentioned, our aquifer would be polluted with the
constant spraying to keep the growth of trees down. Now
as far as property values go, I don't know that this would
be a long-term trend where everybody would lose out.
Usually when something this untoward happens, after
awhile, things calm down and property values would rebound
somewhat, but we haven't got that much longer for us
before retirement, so if I'm hoping to use my home to fund
my retirement as it were, I'm probably not going to have
much of a chance. So I just want you to consider these
things. And also, I found it very interesting when I went
to the other meetings, when I spoke to representatives
from CMP and I asked them if they would like to live next
to this, nobody would answer. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: After Liam Burnell is Larry
Stewart.
MR. BURNELL: Hi. My name is Liam Burnell. I'm
a farmer in the Midcoast. I apologize that I haven't done
as much research as I would have liked to to make accurate
comments this proposal, but I just found out about it on
Sunday and I think that is really indicative -- I heard
there was 12 days notice and I found out two days ago. I
think that's why there aren't more people in this room and
I think that's a deliberate move on the part of the
corporations proposing this plan. I think there should be
further scoping sessions planned so that more public
comment can be made about this because I think there is
probably about a million and a quarter people in Maine who
would be against this plan and we should hear from all of
them. First, we need to tell them about it. I want to
address first of all that eminent domain is being used to
seize property in these cases. And I know that there is
lots of precedent for eminent domain and that it's
culturally accepted, but I consider it an assault. I
don't have land, I'm not losing any land to this, but it's
a form of assault. I appreciate that word being recorded.
And it's not acceptable to take people's land by force
without their consent. I also want to address the concept
that our electricity needs are growing. This proposal is
based on a market projection of growing electricity needs.
Who has these needs? What are these needs? One hundred
years ago, nobody in Maine had any electricity needs.
There are still lots of people in Maine who don't have any
electricity needs. I don't use electricity in my home. I
don't have a wire leading to my home. My next door
neighbor uses electricity, it comes from a solar panel on
his roof. I think most people in Maine have similarly
modest -- I mean we don't all need to go back to the
pioneer days, but I'm all for having electricity at the
hospital and the school, but I think this electricity is
going to Southern New England to support growing suburbs
full of huge luxury homes, to support sporting events at
night, to electrocute prisoners, to have huge Kiss reunion
tours or whatever. These are not realistic needs. These
are things that a corporation is telling us we need and
there are generations of people now who have been sold
things that corporations told them they need that they
didn't. (Inaudible.) They are toxic and they are causing
damage to us now in this generation. These companies need
to make a dollar, and if at the end of the day, they have
made a dollar, then they have succeeded. They don't have
the public's best interest in mind. They don't have any
of our best interests in mind. As someone pointed out,
this is a trans-national corporation based in Europe. The
orders are coming directly from the hierarchy down to us
in Maine. They are telling us that we need it. They
also, you know, told us that we needed Nintendo Game Boys
and our need for all these things is increasing, but it's
not really a need, it's just something we are being sold,
just like advertising companies sell us everything else,
only this is a little more serious than an advertising
company because we have a choice if we are going to go to
Wal-Mart and buy a new plastic toy, but we don't have a
choice if they are going to build a new huge power line
across our state and divert our resources to the growing
energy needs of Southern New England. We have been told
that we need to do this upgrade or the lights are going to
go out. That's a threat. That's extortion. That's
saying if you don't give us what we want, we are going to
shut out the lights. Remember California in 2001, we will
do it again. I think they should be investigated for
comments like that. Yeah, they also -- I think a lot of
their customers nowadays are concerned about the
environment and they want to hear their energy is being
generated in a green way, green, and I want to address
that because this proposal would make it possible for all
sorts of non-green new power generators to be built and no
old power plants to be torn down. We are just simply
adding more to the electric grid. For any industry to be
truly green, it has to stand in direct opposition of the
really destructive industries out there like coal,
nuclear. I mean they are talking about making power lines
that would make it easier to transmit electricity from a
nuclear power plant built just across the border in New
Brunswick across Maine. I think general consensus in the
scientific and lay community knows that nuclear power is
not green. Nuclear waste lasts for tens of thousands of
years and there's no way to deal with it. They also want
to build something like 36 new incinerators which could
burn construction and demolition debris. Here again, I
apologize for not having enough research to tell you what
all could come out of those, but there could be a lot of
chemical fall-out from construction and demolition debris.
I'm a farmer. They want to build a bunch of these things
in the Midcoast. When that stuff rains from the sky, it
will rain on my fields, it will go into my crops and that
will go into the grocery store and people will eat it full
of toxins. That's not green. They -- incinerators can
also burn forest -- I mean trees from the forests. How is
that green? You know, we are used to consuming an amount
of electricity that we can only generate using petroleum.
That's distilled trees, millions of years of distilled
trees. If we burn off all the trees in Maine, that would
give us two years at the rate we use electricity. We are
going to have to cut down and I -- you know, like I said,
I don't think we should all move back to the pioneer days,
but we can prioritize what kind of things we want to spend
electricity on and unplug some of the silly stuff that we
have been sold. I also want to address that -- and this
is something I can't verify, but I have heard that this is
somehow tied into the 700 billion dollar bail-out of the
economy. And I can't verify that, but even the
possibility of that just makes me feel like I have to
comment. I'm a -- I'm a farmer. I had a really tough
season this year. With all my expenses taken out, I will
have made $300. I say will have because I haven't got the
money yet, supposedly next month. So I had to take out
another full-time job in the fall in order to pay my bills
for this winter and I just barely did it, but I could use
a bail-out. I make food. Food is a need. It's a much
more serious need than electricity. Humans have needed
food for their entire existence on this planet in the
geologic time or Christian time or however you measure
time. People need farms. Farmers are in trouble in this
state. Most farmers in Maine are extremely old and they
have not had a vacation. They deserve to retire. They
work every day of their lives because they are in debt,
partially because their land is under fire, partially
because they have been sold a lot of machines that ended
up not working in the long term. They have been sold a
lot of chemicals that ended up not working in the long
term. Their fields are now so full of chemicals that
pests and funguses have -- have grown to overwhelm the
chemicals, but the agricultural plants won't grow there.
These are things that we have been sold by big
corporations for generations and now we are dealing with
the mess.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Time, please.
MR. BURNELL: Can I say one more thing? Are you
the timekeeper?
MR. BUCKLEY: I did ask people to not take over
five minutes.
MR. BURNELL: I'm sorry, I apologize. I think
other things that bail-out money would be better used on
would be schools. We could teach our children to not grow
up to be suckers and buy so much of this stuff.
Hospitals. The baby boomer generation has been fed
chemicals their entire lives. They need hospital care.
Small businesses, these places are tied to their
community, they care about their community, they give back
to their community. When one falls, we don't all fall
with them like the big corporations. But of course that's
not what the money is being spent on, it's being spent on
mega infrastructure, mega corporations of course. I hate
it.
MR. BUCKLEY: Larry Stewart is next and then I'm
not sure of the first name, but Langley is the last name.
MR. STEWART: I'm Larry Stewart of 210 Ferry
Road in Lewiston. I'm an abutter and intervener and I
have a lot of concerns, but one of the first things that I
don't understand is why CMP will promise to come out and
show us where the poles and lines and explain things. To
my knowledge, nobody has seen them people. They are
called. They promise to come, but they don't come. The
other thing that I'm concerned about, as everybody is, is
the noise, okay, and when we talk about health issues, it
would seem to me that if there were no issues here, CMP
and people such as them would have had this made clear to
people a long time ago. And they can't say that it won't,
they can't say it will or won't say it won't, but I think
if there was a way to do this, they would -- with their
money, would have done it a long time ago. And the other
thing is our property values. My understanding of some of
these things, I can't believe that the house that I built
to use as part of my retirement would be sold to anybody
that would have children or grandchildren that are going
to come and live there. I don't care if it's -- if it's
three years from now or 15 years from now, their health
issues are still going to be there and it's going to be a
piece of property that is not going to be worth very much
that I put a lot of my hard earned money into. And here
again, CMP will not come along and verify that that will
have no effect because they know that it will. And we are
affecting a lot of people in the State of Maine for things
that I'm not sure is truly necessary, but that's -- that's
about what I have to say and I thank you all for coming
tonight.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. Langley.
MS. LANGLEY: It's Mjae.
MR. BUCKLEY: Mjae, okay.
MS. LANGLEY: Hi. My name is Mjae Langley. My
husband Marvin and myself have been building our dream
house for three years now, a safe place for our children
and our dogs to explore and play. We currently live on
Sabattus Street in Lewiston where most of the cars fly by
50 to 60 miles an hour. I constantly worry about the kids
going near the road or the dogs chasing a tennis ball that
rolled down the driveway. I have dreamt of the day that I
could live away from the busy road and could let my guard
down a bit. We are expected to move into our new home in
two weeks after three long years. My dream has turned
into a nightmare. My concerns for the proposed 345-volt
power lines are that my children, ages three, two, and six
months, as well as the 11 children that I current -- that
currently attend my home day-care will be exposed on a
regular basis to the EMFs that are said to cause childhood
leukemia and cancer. Who in their right mind would even
continue to send their children to me for that fact? What
if in 10 years they say the EMF cause cancer, what is
anyone going to say to me now, oops, we didn't know, we
didn't think it did? That's not going to work with me.
Please do not use my family as a -- as a study to this
case. We need to use safer alternatives. The cheaper
avenues are not always the best routes. Let's not put a
price on our children, the next generation. I feel that
the safer routes have been overlooked. I believe a
full-blown study without a reasonable doubt should be done
before this project goes any further. I'm also concerned
about the effects that the lines will have on my home
day-care. Will I have a day-care after this? Probably
not. I understand that we are exposed to EMF every single
day, but when I run the microwave for five minutes or I
sit on the computer for an hour here and there, it does
not compare to the new lines they are going to be putting
up near my house that are within 150 feet where my
children sleep for 12 hours a night or 10 hours a night
and then their two-hour nap with all the other children
that I take care of that sleep in my house, that play in
my house. I'm at my house almost 24 hours a day because I
have an at home business, so I'm exposed constantly to
that. Is there a safe distance? Does anybody know? I'm
concerned that the property value of my dream home will
decrease. No one is going to want to buy it. Where am I
going to go? I can't afford to buy another home. I put
my heart and soul into this home, every penny that I have.
I'm concerned about the chemicals that will be sprayed
yearly, how they will affect my well water, how they will
affect the brook that runs in my back yard and now the
small bodies that are by -- that are by my new home. I
want facts and answers before this proceeds so that my
family can feel safe in their home like we should all feel
safe in our home. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: The next name is Carol Dennis and
after Carol Dennis is Bill Linnell.
MS. DENNIS: Thank you for the opportunity to
speak to you tonight. I am Carol Dennis and as an abutter
to the power line right-of-way on the Ferry Road in
Lewiston, I share many of the concerns mentioned here
tonight such as clear cutting of all the trees, noise,
property value decline, and most of all, health risks. I
brought with me some information on health effects of
transmission power line, magnetic and electric fields,
from a web site, www.powerlinefacts.com. This has
questions and answers about various health risks,
especially that of childhood leukemia. I ask that the
officials here all read this document. Although my home
is farther from the power lines than many of my neighbors
here tonight, I am curious at the presumption that my
family and I will stay at the part of our property
furthest from the power lines and that we will stop mowing
our lawn, that my kids will stop playing in the back yard,
and that we will basically no longer be able to use the
rear part of our property which abuts the power lines
unless we want to incur excess risks of significant health
concerns. I think that most of us who live in Maine,
Maine, the way life should be, expect that we can mow --
mow our lawns, have our kids play in the yard and
potentially farm. Many of the properties on our road are
either active farm land or were farms and have the
potential at some point to become farm land again.
However, if it is not safe to go out and mow one's lawn or
farm that land, then that opportunity is lost. I also am
concerned about transparency. I heard a question raised
at one of the previous meetings saying that when the
question was asked if Lewiston would not lose tax income
if property values fell, the answer was that that would
not be a concern to Lewiston because the increased CMP
assessment from the money they would make, including a
projected 8 percent rise in costs to Maine energy
consumers from CMP, in other words, a higher cost of at
least 8 percent following this or during this development,
that this increased CMP assessment of taxes from CMP would
more than make up for the lost income from declining
property values to the City of Lewiston. I would hope
that the City of Lewiston is more concerned with the
health -- the health and welfare of its citizens than a
pure financial statement. I would like to have the
confidence in my town and its government that that would
be the case. I also raise some other health issues and I
don't promise that I have any answers here, but I think
they should be looked into, including the effects of such
lines on pacemakers since this is something that affects
quite a few of our citizens. And I thank you for the
chance to speak tonight. I certainly am not without
understanding of the need for continuing coordination of
power grids and a connection of various other kinds of
power into our grid such as wind power, I understand this
might help connect wind power to us, however, it seems
that there might be other routes that could be taken to do
this that would not cut through the heart of a residential
district in Lewiston and other towns similarly affected.
Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: If you want to leave that -- the
web site info.
MR. LINNELL: Hi, my name is Bill Linnell. I
live at 1905 Congress Street in Portland. I'm a
co-founder and spokesman for Cheaper Safer Power. First,
I would like to just echo all the concerns I have heard
here tonight in terms of health, economics and the
environment. Clearly, the public is very well educated
about these issues. I encourage you to listen to them
very carefully. A quick anecdotal note in terms of
electromagnetic fields. I know four people who have had
leukemia, three of them are electricians, one of them
worked for Central Maine Power. At least three of them
are dead now. Now as you proceed, I encourage you to get
a second opinion. I want a second opinion about whether
this project is a good idea or not and from someone with
some expertise. I will give you a suggestion. About 15
years ago, I attended an event sponsored by the PUC down
in Portland, Maine, and the guest of honor or guest
speaker was -- (inaudible) -- from the Rocky Mountain
Institute. Now they have teams that go out and help, you
know, from cities to countries to regions with their
electrical energy needs and projections and so forth and I
would like to see what they say. And I think it would be
money well spent to hire them to come -- one of their
teams to come to Maine and evaluate the situation. And I
say that because I think a lot of this -- it does come
down to trust. I mean there are a lot of issues here that
are complicated that require a lot of expertise and, you
know, there are people -- there are corporations that, you
know, inspire you with their integrity, with their
interest in the public good and so forth, and I submit to
you that CMP is not one of these corporations. And I will
give you a couple specific examples. Back when they owned
the nuclear plant in Wiscasset, the plant was shut down.
You can verify this. These are facts. They insisted for
months and months, for years, that they had to get that
plant back on-line because we needed that cheap
electricity from Maine Yankee. Well, I came across
something and I believe it was on Central Maine Power
letterhead, it may have been from the PUC, but I think it
was CMP letterhead, and I still have it somewhere, and it
showed that Maine Yankee Power was 5 cents a kilowatt
wholesale. The whole rest of the New England grid was 1
cent per kilowatt hour, so they were actually -- the truth
was they were five times more expensive than any other
source in New England and yet they maintained and denied
that it was the opposite. Only on the last day, the day
they announced that they were closing for good, did they
finally admit in their press release that they were -- one
of the major factors in their closing was that they could
not compete with electricity on the New England market. I
will give you another example. Health. Central Maine
Power welcomed students, welcomed visitors to the plant.
One of the groups they welcomed was a bunch of students
from USM. Unfortunately, the day the USM students visited
the plant, which of course they said was safe, they had a
radiation leak in the plant and the students were exposed
to it. They had a meeting with the students a few days
later and a CMP hired doctor told the students in
addressing their concerns, he said that -- and you can
verify this, I'm sure -- that radiation actually might be
good for them, sort of like taking a vitamin. Now in
terms of economics, I think, you know, with a little
dignity, you can find that there is ample evidence that
there is more jobs and it's better for the economy if you
invest in things like conservation. And there's a book I
read years ago called Dynamos And Virgins. I encourage
you to take a look at it. It was a big power expansion
plant in California. And an organization got together and
they crunched some numbers and they said, well, instead of
investing all this money in new power generation and so
forth, if they insulated houses better, it is just too
simple, that they would actually save money, it would be
cheaper, and I think that is still the case here. Now I
do have some requests I would like to see the PUC, you
know, break down for me. One is I would like to see, you
know, the upgrades that are deemed, you know, absolutely
necessary for our current -- current energy needs, you
know, whatever -- if some of these lines are, you know,
just old and decrepit, you know, what do we actually need
minimum to satisfy our current needs. Then I would like
to see an overlay on that recognizing the trend toward
distributed power. It's a lot cheaper and more reliable
to have -- the closer your energy source is to the user,
it's much more reliable, much more reliable on the grid.
98 to 99 percent of all electrical failures are grid
related, so if I have a solar at my house or nearby, I
don't need to ship it, it's more reliable than if I ship
it hundreds of miles through a power line. Then I would
like to see -- I would like to see an overlay -- oh, I'm
sorry, in terms of that distributed power which is -- you
know, that is progress, that is the trend is distributed
power, and that's the direction we should be going in. My
sense in this plan is that -- Central Maine Power's plan
is to go backwards in sort of an old school approach to
power with big power sources. So I would like to see an
overlay where you look at some modest maybe to more
aggressive distributed power sources and what impact they
could have on the need for this and you may find you don't
need this at all. Also, I would like to see an overlay of
how much of this infrastructure is really geared towards
serving the wants of companies and folks south of Maine,
say New York, Boston. I mean I think we really need to
break that out in terms of how much of this is really for
Maine, how much of this is to serve out of state needs. I
would also like to see an overlay of how much of this is
serving Canada's desire to sell electricity to places like
New York and so forth. And I would also like to see a
breakdown in terms of how much of this is -- would hook up
to New Brunswick wind power and nuclear power. It's been
mentioned earlier, and every now and then, I see it in
some of the -- some of the description of this project, in
the fine print, I see something about Canadian nuclear,
and I would like to have some details on the projection of
how much Canadian nuclear is going to be involved in this
if it goes through. I certainly hope it doesn't. I'm
also -- I would like an answer to the question of if we
build a power line to hook up to Canadian New Brunswick
wind power, are we required to accept their nuclear power
also, because I think there's a concern there. Maybe
NAFTA or something would require if we have a power
line -- I'm guessing we would have to take Canadian
nuclear power also and I don't think we should encourage
that.
MR. BUCKLEY: If you could wrap up.
MR. LINNELL: Sure. And in terms of --
specifically in terms of nuclear, if you check in with the
Rocky Mountain Institute, they have got a lot of evidence
that nuclear power now is more -- is too expensive, just
the construction costs alone. The other concerns are very
important, very valid, in terms of health,
decommissioning, waste, so on, but the construction costs
alone now make new nuclear so expensive that it can't
compete with any source of power. And finally on that
note, I had a conversation with -- (inaudible) -- a former
nuclear inspector with the State of Maine and I asked him
why there was so much economic information in the Maine
Yankee projections, you know, this is the plant that
closed down 12 years earlier because they could not pay
their bills, and he said, well, nuclear plants that are
well run and financially stable are safer plants, so, you
know, my concern here is that there's a lot of evidence
that no nuclear plant can be built cheaply today and we
are setting up for a failure if we hook up to New
Brunswick nuclear. Thanks very much.
MR. BUCKLEY: John Merrill is next. After John
Merrill is Joe Garcia.
MR. MERRILL: I was in the other room.
MR. BUCKLEY: That's okay.
MR. MERRILL: My name is John Merrill. I'm from
the Town of Etna, Maine, and I'm with the Penobscot
Conservation Association out of Brewer and we have got
notice of the northern line, not the southern line, we
have over 1400 acres that we are keeping forever wild as
far as a game preserve and your northern power line is
going right straight through the middle of it. This is
the largest wild body of kept forever wild in Central
Maine and it's going to be destroyed. Another problem we
are having with this is that -- trying to find out
information about this. We got a letter, no phone number.
We got a name. I called Central Maine Power. They gave
me the run-around. I was three weeks trying to find a
name. I finally got one name. I left a message. Each
day, I called two or three times and left a message on her
voice mail. Never got back. Finally, I called and I
threatened to file complaint with the Maine Utility
Company. 20 minutes later, I got a phone call. She sent
me maps, how it was going to come through, which does not
set a good example if they are going to try to keep this
under the table, but we are now upset because we have put
a lot of effort and a lot of money into this, the
association, to try to keep part of Maine from being
developed and destroyed. And as I say, we have over
1400 acres which is going to be ruined. And this is the
largest body of land in Central Maine that is going to be
kept forever wild. And I think that these power lines
things are a dinosaur, they are going to be obsolete in
time, so I just -- I would like to have more cooperation
where we could get more information. I'm hoping there is
going to be other hearings probably up in the Bangor area.
MR. BUCKLEY: The commission will have other
public witness hearings in the next calendar year.
MR. MERRILL: Do you have to go underground to
find out when there is a meeting?
MR. BUCKLEY: We give newspaper notice and try
to get articles generated. They have not decided where
they are going to be, but I imagine there will be one more
in the central northern part and one in the southern part
of the state.
MR. MERRILL: Okay. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Mr. Garcia is next and then Brad
Blake.
MR. GARCIA: My name is Joe Garcia. I'm a
selectmen in the Town of Etna and we just got maps through
John which shows we are going to get hit -- a little part
of our town is going to get hit with it, but the biggest
concern I have had from some of the people who called me
in town is they are scared. They are scared because they
are hearing they are going to be putting these massive
power lines through, they are not exactly sure where, and
they are also scared about the cost. We live in an
economically depressed area, we are poor, it's a poor
town, and the electric bill is a hard enough bill to
fathom, and I've been looking at the numbers and I see
that they have allocated 1-1/2 billion for the southern
part. God knows how much for the northern part up.
That's a 2-1/2 billion dollar monkey, the way I see it,
that they are going to be put -- that CMP is going to be
taking on. And given their history and given the way the
economy is and has been going, I have a big concern that
that monkey is not going to get dumped on the backs of the
people who are in this state, particularly since they are
not really going to benefit. As other people have said,
most of the electricity is going out of state. What does
it do for the people in my town? It doesn't do anything
quite frankly. They say it will bring jobs. Fine. For
six months, you build it. They are gone. It brings all
sorts of problems, all sorts of issues. I would like the
Public Utilities Commission to really take a hard, hard
look at this proposal, see what kind of scar they are
going to run from the north of Maine to the south of Maine
and then think about it and see if they can sleep with
their conscious and what it's going to do to that
beautiful land up there. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Brad Blake and then JoAnne Masar.
MR. BLAKE: Good evening. My name is Brad
Blake. I live in Cape Elizabeth, but I have a cottage on
Caribou Pond in Lincoln, Maine. And my family has a
cottage on Silver Lake in Lee, Maine. Well, you wonder
why am I here. It's one of those exercises of connect the
dots, folks. The power line expansion is not needed and
it's not needed for two reasons. If we pulled ourselves
out of ISO New England, we are more than self-sufficient
in our wonderful State of Maine for generations to come
with existing power. The reason why I'm here is I'm the
spokesman for the Friends of Lincoln Lakes, an
organization of citizens, an advocacy group that was
formed because First Wind doing business as Evergreen
Three, LLC, is about to get permitting from the Town of
Lincoln and probably the DEP early next year to go ahead
with 40 industrial wind turbines on the ridges above 15
lakes in Lincoln, Lee and Berlington and Winn. Now
Industrial Wind is not your small size personal power
plants that people like to have and we encourage. They
are also not the medium size power plants that can take
something like a municipal sewage treatment plant off the
grid. They are huge. And it has become the policy of the
Baldacci Administration for some asinine reason to foster
the development of dozens of these throughout Northern and
Eastern Maine and in Western Maine as well. Mars Hill has
been done. Stetson Mountain is about to come on-line.
Lincoln is going to be next. Chibby Mountain on the
boundary of Quebec is -- has started. Reddington has
started. Fort Kent is -- is being looked at by Horizon
Wind from Texas of all places. Everywhere that there is a
north south access ridge in this State of Maine is going
to have a met tower put up on it. And the reason for that
is not because of the piddling amount of intermittent
power that will surge into the grid to be sent to ISO New
England and have to take it and that's the reason why you
have a power line expansion, the reason why these turbines
are being built is because it is a tax subsidy plantation.
Because if you take away the tax subsidies for developing
industrial wind, the industry goes away. It doesn't
sustain itself. And to think that we want to take on a
billion-and-a-half dollars of power line expansion and
upgrades to enable this raid on the taxpayers' dollars is
asinine. So I hope that you will think that there are
many dots to connect including ending industrial wind
power industry rape of Rural Maine. Thank you very much.
MR. BUCKLEY: After JoAnne is Michael Duston.
MS. MASAR: I have a letter from somebody that
couldn't come tonight and I have some pictures for you
that I brought.
MR. BUCKLEY: All right. Thank you.
MS. MASAR: Thank you for having this meeting
and I'm glad to hear that you are going to have another
one in the southern part -- more southern part of the
state. I am speaking at this hearing to voice my concerns
about CMP's project relative to its necessity, scope and
the effect it will have on my property values and health.
As you already know, I live in a condominium development
in South Berwick which is currently being negatively
affected by the first phase of this project. This is
going to devastate the landscape of our property
needlessly, as I have said many times. The market value
of our property has already seen a 17 percent decrease in
the last 60 days. There is nobody protecting the property
owners against CMP. The commission has made rulings in
favor of CMP and ordered that they work with property
owners. However, the commission does not follow up and
makes sure this is actually accomplished. Complaints seem
to fall on deaf ears. I want to know why and I want to
know what will be done to rectify this. I'm greatly
concerned about the health effects of this project. These
power lines will come within feet of some homeowners' back
doors. I have attached pictures of my development so that
we will hopefully be more than just an aerial view. We
are real people. EMF is real too. I don't need an expert
paid for by CMP to tell me it isn't so. CMP has already
told us they again intend to remove all the trees in the
remainder of the easement even though it is not necessary.
It is the only buffer we have between the power lines and
our homes. What will the commission do to stop this from
happening? If you insist on allowing this project to go
forward, you should order these lines to go underground.
If CMP can spend millions of dollars to hire attorneys and
experts and pay UPS fees for thousands of documents to
interveners, not to mention the regular wages, perhaps
overtime they are paying to their own employees to meet
with abutters and attend these public meetings that
they're so opposed to having, then they can certainly
spend the money on these lines to be put underground where
they are safer. As I suggested once before, I would like
to see all of the commission and Mr. Buckley to actually
visit our property and see for yourselves what impact you
are having on the public in your decision making. This is
not simply about business. It's about our health, our
safety, our property values, and the quality of our life.
You impact it all. Lastly -- well, you already answered
that question about the meeting. And I thank you. That's
all.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. After Michael Duston
is Alan Carle.
MR. HUSTON: Good evening. Actually, it's
Michael Huston. I have the worst handwriting, I
apologize. My name is Michael Huston. I live in Lisbon
Falls. I own no property that is near this. I have no
gripe with the power line from a personal point of view
because of that. I'm also the director of economic
development and planning for a community in Southern
Maine, but I don't want to tell you where it is because
I'm not here on their behalf. I have worked in the past
for a corporation in Massachusetts that developed small
scale hydro power. I worked for a corporation in the
other Portland on the left coast that did a lot of work
with power companies in conservation. And I offer you
this not because I'm the smartest guy in the room. In
fact, I am not anywhere close to the smartest person in
the room, but I have some understanding of electricity and
how it gets power and how it gets generated and how it
gets moved around. During the ice storm, I was the city
manager in Hallowell, so I have a lot of experience with
dealing with Central Maine Power coming in and correcting
power and getting us back up. And I have a lot of respect
for the work they put in, but I submit to you that as a
company, they -- and they are not alone in this -- are not
forward thinking folks. They don't need this. If they
would look -- and it's been discussed before, this is
certainly not original -- it's some sort of distributed
power and -- if the Public Utilities Commission would say
that's what we want you to do. If they have the ability
to raise a billion-and-a-half dollars, and I have to say
I'm not sure they have the ability to raise a
billion-and-a-half, but let's give them that and say that
they can, what if they put half a billion of that or maybe
half or 750 million of it, 750 million, half of what they
raise into something like solar cells or fuel cells or
some better batteries, and instead of taking those out
into the country where there are a lot of people who are
getting off the grid -- I mean we have an opportunity.
This is Lewiston, Maine. It's a fairly dense area. There
are a lot of apartment buildings. There are a lot of
single family homes. In Lisbon Falls where I live, there
are 260 homes that are fairly easy. I mean if all of that
money was put into that, I mean you get the cost of these
things down, you could put them in. And I don't care
if -- if the generating company continues to own those
generating panels instead of my owning them. Think back
to the phone system. When I was young, probably when --
you don't remember, sir, but when I was young, the phone
company owned the phones. We paid rent to them. No one
bought a phone. No one had that on their own. It was a
fairly good business model. Probably doesn't work for the
phone company now because everything is portable, but, you
know, electricity for the most part isn't portable, it's
going to remain. I want to be part of a grid. I know
there are a lot of people who don't want to be, but I want
to be part of the grid. I want to know somebody is going
to come and fix the problem when it goes out at my house.
I want to know it's going to be there, so I don't really
care if the company owns it, but the company doesn't have
any incentive to build it. The company doesn't have any
incentive to try to wean me from the grid because they can
do this, because they can come in and say we are going to
do this. I think that we ought to be forcing them to look
at some of these alternatives. If you replace -- if you
can take 250 to 750 homes out of the system, then that
electricity is not going to have to go in. Then you have
got room for it. Then you can put in a new wind system or
maybe you can do without. The company I worked for in
Portland, Oregon, specialized solely in large grocery
stores. That was their niche. And in the two years they
operated before the tax credits went away, they were able
to cut electrical use in those stores in Portland by
almost 15 percent. Now those were, you know, times before
we had a lot of the technology that we have got now. That
was in 1984, so we have got a whole generation that's
happened since then. These things are all possible. And
I think before we allow a company to say we need to build
more power lines like this, we need to increase this so we
can have more base power units, we ought to be requiring
them to tell us why they can't take that money and spend
it on alternatives that they can own that they can make a
profit on and that are going to wean us away from this
sort of massive large scale inefficient use of the
resources that we have. Thank you very much.
MR. BUCKLEY: Alan Carle and then Hillary
Lister.
MR. CARLE: Good evening. My name is Alan Carl.
I live in Yarmouth. I'm here tonight with a few members
of our community action group, the Yarmouth interveners.
I have a couple of quick comments to make that are
concerns of ours. From previous testimony, it has become
clear that CMP has used a new standard of reliability
unprecedented in Maine in order to design the proposed
infrastructure additions and upgrades. We caution the
commission that the standards promoted in this case by CMP
if adopted in Maine and New England will greatly raise
consumer costs. The gold plate of this project must be
avoided. My second point is -- second comment is there
are serious concerns -- there are serious questions about
what the rush is to get this done. Why is the CMP system
in such a shambles all of the sudden? The whole process
should take -- the whole process should move a bit slower
to make sure that it is needed and that it minimizes
impacts on our communities. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. Hillary Lister.
MS. LISTER: Hi there. I spoke at the hearing
in Waterville, but I've found out a lot more since then,
so I just wanted to speak again. So the first thing is I
agree with the last person who spoke, this process really
needs to be slowed down. At the Waterville hearing, there
was only a four-day notice in the local newspaper. This
is affecting the whole state. There really needs to be
more public notice for this to be any sort of fair
process. Also, the fact that there has already been
intervener cross-examinations, expert witnesses, and it
sounds like there is intervener processes still open, you
have said, so I'm just wondering how that is going to work
if people now want to file as interveners, if they can
present their own expert testimony, if there will continue
to be technical hearings, and if not, I would really
encourage that. Let's see, I'm also concerned that part
of this project is already going, it sounds like, from
speaking with people in South Berwick, the corridor has
already been cut. I'm really concerned that these
dockets -- it's being separated into different dockets,
Northern Maine and Southern Maine, even though it's
clearly part of the same project, and I'm concerned if the
Central and Southern Maine section gets it approved, what
if the Northern Maine section turns out to be something
that is decided isn't right. I think these really need to
go together so people can be fully informed of what's
going on. One thing -- a person earlier spoke about
nuclear. Since I've been researching this, I have come
across -- (inaudible) -- in New Brunswick, they want to
put a second nuclear reactor on-line. The only way they
can get financing is if they can sell that power to the
Southern New England market, so this looks like this is
key to that. I think between that and the amount of
so-called biomass boilers, incinerators that already exist
on this line and that will be able to sell power to here,
all this talk about wind power for things that don't even
exist, I think incinerator industry, waste industry and
nuclear power industry are already set to go, so -- and
there is only a limited amount of renewable energy credits
available for these things. And burning construction
demolition debris waste and in some cases nuclear power
being considered renewable carbon neutral, I think the
thing a lot of people brought up of looking at distributed
power localized. And I have read CMP's report and the
non-transmission alternatives report that says the
solution is biomass. I would argue that's not at all the
solution. It's dangerous. People -- where I live in
Athens, people got sick from so-called biomass. People in
Old Town have gotten sick from so-called biomass. It's
including lead painted wood, arsenic treated wood, PVC
plastics, you've got toxic ash, toxic emissions. This is
not a safe thing. I think we can look at safe distributed
generation. We can look at -- if we have a
billion-and-a-half dollars or 2-1/2 billion dollars to
spend, why not give it to the local communities and they
can work together and come up with something that is going
to benefit the people of Maine and not just Iberdrola and
CMP and some power generating plants that don't live here
and are not affected by the impacts. And I also -- I know
the PUC was supposed to look at the option of an
independent transmission company where Maine power is
generated in Maine for Maine, much more distributed. I
have not seen too much about that other than it looked
like it was just given a cursory overview and then said
that it wasn't feasible. I think it is feasible and I
think until that option has been really explored and until
people really get a chance to get informed about what this
is and work with their local communities, people of Maine
need to have the ability to propose an alternative because
this is a bad plan and I hope you give us the chance. I
understand you are not elected, so you are accountable to
the governor, not to the -- but you are also supposedly
public servants accountable to the public and I hope you
take that seriously. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Next is David and Mary Fournier.
MR. FOURNIER: Hello. Hello my name is David
Fournier. I'm from Eliot, Maine, 16 High Meadow Farm
Road, and I'm an intervener for the MPRP CPCN project.
Maine Power Reliability Program. Well, there's been a lot
of testimony tonight and a lot of people here don't think
it's really about Maine or power reliability. Mr. Buckley
mentioned that system thermal overload, I believe it was,
was the reason that these monuments to electricity are
being built. I don't know. Do we really want to deliver
these to our children for generations to come to be
maintained like the infrastructures that we have that are
declining like the bridges and everything else that we
have messed up? So I know that, you know, we probably do
need to upgrade a few power lines. I'm not against
upgrading power lines, but it just seems to be a little
bit too much. The local generating electricity sounds
like it's a much better idea as far as not putting all of
our eggs in one basket, you know, you lose one power line,
there goes all of New England. The fact that one of the
benefits would be that transmitting power to the rest of
the New England grid is just an unexpected bonus is -- I
don't think that's really what it was meant to be, so I'm
against the Maine Power Reliability Program.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you.
MS. FOURNIER: Hi. My name is Mary Fournier. I
live in Eliot, Maine, same address as my husband who just
spoke. And as I look at all of you -- and I think I have
gotten to know at least how two of the three commissioners
think fairly well over the last year having been very
involved as the lead complainant on a 10-person complaint
regarding the 115,000 volt reconstruction in North
Berwick, South Berwick and Eliot, Maine, which is not just
underway, which a lot of people will be facing the same
prospect, having to -- gotten to know Jim Buckley, and I
think I am quite familiar with how Jim, you know,
approaches things and how he thinks, still have not gotten
to know much about Jack Cashman yet except for we are from
the same area originally, I believe. My first residence
was in Brewer, Maine, but when I came here tonight to talk
about an hour-and-a-half away was this. I don't think
that people realize the severity and the seriousness of
what the four of you -- the four of you right in front of
me are about to decide within the next year, less than a
year. We have a company which provides a necessity to us
through its transmission and distribution lines, Central
Maine Power Company. I learned a lot tonight by listening
to other participants in this public witness hearing about
the quality of the background of Central Maine Power
Company and it leaves much to be desired. I have gotten
to know many of these people who are involved in the
day-to-day business of Central Maine Power Company
throughout the last year and I must say I'm very
disappointed in the quality of what's happening right now
with us. Section 197 construction began approximately two
weeks ago. On five occasions, I have been out to monitor
the progress of the work. I have photographed before
pictures. I'm in the process of photographing after
pictures. I must describe to you clearly -- and I'm not
misrepresenting this and I'm not exaggerating -- it is an
absolute mess down there. I don't see one rule of the DEP
being followed. The company who is hired to clear the
trees is cutting the trees. There are stumps that are
this high, shorter, a little higher. There are trees that
are not marked well. They are not clear on what trees
they are supposed to cut and what trees they are not
supposed to cut in wetlands, I mean where there is
standing water. I do see construction mats. I also see
many strewn about pine tree limbs that they don't want.
The trees they take, they chip into a large tractor
trailer truck eventually and sell to generate power.
These are very hard working individuals. I believe they
have been working overtime. I'm quite sure they have
worked Saturdays and very -- one person said to me when I
first went out to see the site near Craig Hill Substation,
he said, gee, I feel really badly about these people, we
are starting up our machinery, our really loud machinery
at 7:00 A.M. After my husband got home from work that
day, I said, you have got to see what they are doing. And
when we got there, it was already dark and they weren't
close to done. They made such progress in the first few
days, I was absolutely amazed. Currently, there are
single poles now constructed. There is one area where
there is a very large built up section where they took
apart somebody's old beautiful rock wall and put it in the
soil dug up from the wetlands to make a strong base around
the single pole. There is hay on top of that. There
are -- in the DEP order, there are supposed to be yellow
plastic caution tape areas where they are protecting
endangered wildlife plants. We have seen some of them
just torn off and there is nothing there. There is mud.
I mean there are enough pine limbs strewn in wetlands. We
have wildlife habitats that are being demolished and they
have only done I would say approximately a mile, if that,
of construction at this point. Somebody called me to tell
me they had begun construction and I didn't take too long
to get up there. And he was absolutely devastated. His
property is a designated view-shed in the State of Maine.
It's called Cabbage Hill. It was absolutely beautiful.
You would drive along Route 4 and it was very beautiful.
It was something that would make you feel very comforted
that you live in Maine. It's one of our precious views.
It is gone now. The trees are just wiped right out for
the most part. There are a few stragglers here and there.
My husband and I have been trying to work with CMP since
the end of May to try to get them to move our --
(inaudible.) Ironically, in CMP's answer to the 10-person
complaint, filed on December 14th of last year, in tab R,
there is an aerial photograph of our home that is
engineered by TRC, they are a consulting engineering
company, I was told, where they show a red dot and it is
pole 101, exactly where we want it. They will not do that
for us even though the commission has ordered them on
August 22nd of 2008 to meet with the abutters who have
requested it on this Section 197 where it is a rebuilt
30-foot offset 115,000-volt line to wherever they could do
this to accommodate their preferences. We have, my
husband and I, discussed quite seriously in an answer I
received from the project -- the head project engineer
from CMP, after I did a filing, he has estimated -- and I
learned later it's not really based on any real fact --
that it may cost as much as 20,000 to put that pole there.
My husband and I have offered to CMP employees, including
their senior counsel, that we will pay the difference. No
response. Our town code enforcement officer recently sent
a letter to Central Maine Power outlining all the specific
code ordinances they expect them to follow, to abide by.
I have heard no response from CMP. We have specific codes
which require tree buffering, protection -- preservation
of the landscape, water quality, soil erosion. Our
property has wetland on it. We have a hill that if
they -- due to these other areas where they obviously
don't care and have not communicated to these inexpensive
tree clearing people, because they are getting the trees
at a profit, that they are not supposed to be destroying
our wetlands. EMF issues concern me also. Today, I
called California and I spoke with -- in the Department of
Education in California because of having listened to Bill
Bailey's expert testimony, which is of course going to be
biased because he is paid for and hired by CMP, but we are
all footing the bill, I spoke with two gentlemen in the
school facilities planning division regarding testimony
that was part of, you know, abutters asking questions of
Bill Bailey regarding California. And they have setback
requirements that's under Title 5, that's state Title 5
regulation -- law regulations, I spoke to two very highly
qualified individuals about the specifics. Where you have
a school plant on a piece of property and you have a power
company wanting to put anything between 220 and 230 kV up,
there's a 50-foot setback requirement from the boundary
easement of the corridor to the boundary line of the
school property. And they do not -- if anything is over
200 kV, they cannot deviate from this. Sometimes because
of limitations, there are power company requests to place
a line that is under 220-volt, under 200,000 volts, and
there's a very -- process they are required to do a
specific study to report to -- there is like an
environmental law where they have to file environmental
plans and it is very rigorous and they do not look at it
lightly. We have children who live very close to these
corridors, many children. Central Maine Power Company has
downsized greatly and they put a spin as far as EMF.
Everything I listen to, I must honestly say there was a
spin put on it by Bill Bailey. That's what he was hired
to do. We have children, we have elderly people. My
father has a pacemaker. (Inaudible.) I said, well, dad,
you think about it, but he does have a pacemaker. My
mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She's 85
years old. She's doing pretty well right now, she's very
independent, but our home has a mother-in-law apartment in
it with its own kitchen and bathroom, very comfortable
quarters, in case one of my parents wants to live with us
and I don't know if they would be able to because of the
health effects of the EMF. I had the privilege to live in
England for two-and-a-half years while my husband was
service in United States -- (inaudible.) I will tell you,
I listened to Mr. Bailey's answer regarding the English
not allowing these high power voltage lines next to
people's home and we thought maybe that wasn't so much
health or whatever to that effect, but it may have to do
with property rights. Well, we in the United States
certainly should have property rights, but I will tell you
right now from having lived in England, they would never
allow this. It would be -- it would have to do -- the
British would have made these decisions based on health
issues certainly. They have very unbiased studies because
they're not making a lot of money off of them. They have
the national health care system. And people would be
outraged. You cannot build this in somebody's
neighborhood. In New Hampshire where we live very close
to --
MR. BUCKLEY: Mary, you should wrap up.
MS. FOURNIER: (Inaudible.) They don't put them
in people's back yards. We have -- again, you know, I
would encourage people to go down to South Berwick and
look at what's being done now because they will see that
three times over if CMP is approved, the devastation to
the land, and CMP does not correct it, they are not
compliant with the PUC's orders and they do not care.
They have told me they are not intending to put any tree
buffers up. They have already, already disobeyed your
orders. And you are a very important -- probably the most
important state agency, you really are. You have a great
service to perform and you all have I think a great deal
of intelligence and wisdom, but this is the most
long-reaching decision you will ever make and we have
people who -- you don't want to know 10 years down the
road, I'm sure, any one of you, I don't think you are
these types of people where you will know that these
effects that you decided, if you decide this way, that you
have caused deaths and serious illnesses. And that I
think there will be -- as the construction occurs, if it
does, once the people see what's being done to their
property, there will be the biggest uprising I believe
amongst Mainers and there will be many laws changed and
there will be heads to roll basically because this is
very, very serious. And I beg of you, I beg of you, I
think that your orders are very serious, and I appreciate
what you did in the orders in the last case, and I do
expect that there will be some enforcement of those
orders, and I think that when you see these people who
come -- and I'm almost done, Jim, thank you -- many people
intervened and I think it is -- the docket itself is
screwed up. A lot of filings are from rate cases, all
kinds of things that have nothing to do with MPRP, but the
filings are very voluminous and it's complicated. And I
think a lot of interveners care just as much as they did
when they filed, but I think they're overwhelmed, do not
have the time -- (inaudible) -- and this sort of thing,
but I think there is still definitely the interest. And I
thank you for having this tonight. I appreciate you all,
I want you to know that, and I hope to God -- and I mean
this as sincerely as anybody can -- that you make very
careful wise decisions on our behalves. Thank you very
much.
MR. BUCKLEY: Next name is James Tierney, I
believe.
MR. TIERNEY: Thank you. I wasn't going to
testify tonight, but I decided to because what I have to
say has not been said by anybody else, so let me just
suggest that what we are talking about is kind of a
distraction and it feels to me like we are putting the
cart before the horse. And let me just take a minute or
two. I know the hour is late. You have heard a lot of
different things. I will try not to repeat anything, but
it seems to me that this is the cart, you know, this
distribution, how do we get the power to the people who
need it. That's important. But the horse lies offshore
here. All the power that we will ever need, if I'm not
mistaken, can be generated with the wind that exists
offshore. And if we generated it within three or three
nautical miles from shore, then we, the people of Maine,
already own the fuel that it would take to generate all
the electricity we will ever need. So, you know, I --
when I say it's a distraction, I think it's important that
we look here and realize that if we put generators within
three miles of shore, we already own all the fuel to
generate all the electricity in a clean way without
damaging the environment. So then, you know, if we all
decided that that was a good idea, and I can't imagine why
we wouldn't think it's a good idea, then we could decide,
well, what kind of a cart do we want to get the
electricity to where the people in Maine want it. Maybe
that's the best one, I don't know, but I do know we are
crazy if we don't take advantage of the free fuel off the
coast to generate the electricity that we need and then
figure out what kind of a cart we need to get it where we
would like it to be. I do appreciate your coming to
Lewiston/Auburn. I live in Auburn. Not too many people
here tonight from Auburn, but I appreciate your coming to
Lewiston/Auburn. We are sort of off the beaten track, but
I think we have a lot of bright people here and have
something to say and I appreciate your listening.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. I realize now the last
name on the list has been X'd out, so that's all the names
on the list that I have. Is there anyone else here who
didn't have a chance to sign up who wants to?
MR. JONES: My name is Brad Jones and I have a
farm in South Berwick. And for many months now, I've been
talking with representatives from CMP concerning the tree
line that Mary Fournier was talking about. I have about
300 acres which I'm going to put into conservation, all of
it. And I talked with CMP representatives many times. I
was assured, quote, that only capable species would be
cut, all others would be left. I was assured that over
and over and over again. I had a meeting with the project
engineer just before -- couple weeks before cutting
started and an arborist so-called from CMP came down and
he said, no, it was all going to be cut. And still, after
the arborist left, I was assured that only capable species
would be cut. I wrote a letter to the PUC and I asked for
help on it and I was told, well, ordinarily -- I believe
you told me, Jim, you ordinarily don't get involved after
a ruling is passed down and that shook me. I said, well,
to myself, you mean we pass a law and then we don't
enforce it, so I was kind of concerned. And I
understand -- I'm not saying you weren't doing your job, I
understand this is very difficult. Anyway, I was promised
that when the cutting started, I would be notified in
advance. I was told that they were committed to telling
me before the cutting was started, I would be told in
advance, because I'm affected for 1500 lineal feet along
my property. And this new project is going to affect
another half a mile on my property too, but that's beside
the point, I will have to face that too. Anyway, it was
several days into the cutting when I found out the project
had started and I called the project engineer and I said,
how come you did not keep your word, how come you have not
kept your word right along, how come you did not tell me
when you were going to start the cutting. Oh, he said,
they started the project, I didn't know that. I said,
sure you didn't know that, sure, sure. Then he said,
well, I haven't got complete control over that, real
nasty-like, and I said, oh, boy. So anyway, I proceeded
to see all this capable species cut and everything else
left. Well, I can assure you that nothing is left right
to the ground. It's ground into the ground. There is
dirt left. Low bush juniper, low bush blueberry,
everything is gone. It is a mess, an absolute total mess
into the wetlands. If anybody would like to see it, it's
on the Old Knights Pond Road, corner of Harvey Road and
Route 4, on the South Berwick, North Berwick line. And I
assure you that in my opinion, CMP representatives are not
to be trusted at all. In my opinion, they are not to be
believed at all. I am very, very unhappy and very
disappointed. I also think it's not very smart of them to
do this to landowners, because now, I have 700 more feet
that is going to be affected by this new line. I'm not in
a very good mood to deal with them. Maybe I will be
forced to by eminent domain. I don't know. I just don't
know, but I -- they have a terrible track record with me.
I tried to work with them in good faith. They told me
they would work with me in good faith. They were told by
the PUC to work with me and other landowners in good
faith. I'm not the only landowner along the 197 line that
has been devastated by this. There is another couple on
Dennett Road not far from me and the fellow said I feel
bad enough, but my wife is totally devastated. They told
us they would not do this, they told us they would not do
this to us, and he said, I just don't understand. I said,
well, I don't understand either because it's not very good
corporate policy to treat people this way. Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you.
MS. GABEY: Good evening. Thank you for the
opportunity to speak even though I didn't have a chance to
sign up. I'm Ruth Gabey. I live in West Gardiner. And
I'm a member of the Maine Green Independent Party and on
the issues committee and I will probably bring this up to
the committee at some time in the very near future. I've
been an environmentalist for more than 40 years. I have
attended many, many, many of these type hearings and we
get -- we get more -- we go more backwards every year. We
are seven -- nine years into the 21st century and I would
think that all of the sins of the 20th century would be
behind us, but the mentality is still in the 20th century.
We are still doing the things that we did in the 20th
century that caused global warning, air pollution, ocean
pollution, extinction of species, and the whole
nine yards. I just can't understand the mentality that
prevails that keeps us into the 20th century. With all
the talk of global warning and acid rain from generation
of electricity, Mercury coming down from the coal mine
plants, polluting our fish, making tune fish inedible for
the most part, all these things, and the list goes on and
on and on, and yet, we have these people with the 20th
century mentality ruling our laws. And at age 77, I'm
damn sick and tired of it. And I think it's time if you
people can't do the right thing, then like Harry Truman
said, if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, get out,
resign your position and tell the government and CMP that
you are not going to abide by their horrible rules of
degradation of this state and the people in it. Thank
you.
MS. FOURNIER: I never got sworn in. Can you
swear us in after the testimony that it was all truthful?
MR. BUCKLEY: I could. Let's see if there is
anybody else who wants to speak tonight.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I didn't -- (inaudible.)
MR. BUCKLEY: You checked off that you didn't
want to be.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Oh, did I?
MR. BUCKLEY: I can swear you in and then ask
you all if you adopt the statements you gave earlier as
sworn testimony. Each raise your right hand. You too.
Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you will give in
this proceeding will be wholly truthful?
(Audience Members Sworn In.)
MR. BUCKLEY: I'm going to ask -- I'm going to
ask and each one of you should answer yes or no. You were
just sworn now and do you adopt the statement you gave
earlier as -- as if given under oath this evening?
MR. LINNELL: Yes, I do. Bill Linnell.
MS. FOURNIER: Mary Fournier.
MR. BUCKLEY: And you said yes?
MS. FOURNIER: Yes, I do.
MR. FOURNIER: Yes, I do. David Fournier.
MR. TIERNEY: Yes, I do too. Jim Tierney.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you. Well, there's no one
else on the list and no other persons. Thank you all for
coming and we are adjourned. Just for those who -- in
case you are curious, CMP asked this case to be decided by
next June, early June, and the next set of events to
happen is both the commission staff and the interveners
will have a chance to file their own experts or their own
opinion testimony and that will happen probably sometime
in the beginning of the new year and then there is another
round of technical conferences and things like that
leading to ultimately hearings sometime in probably the
early spring before the commission decides in next May or
June. Okay. Thank you all for coming.
(Time Noted: 8:47 P.M.)
C E R T I F I C A T E
I, Lisa S. Bishop, a Notary Public in and for the
State of Maine, hereby certify that the proceedings were
had in the cause styled in the caption hereto; that I was
authorized to and did attend said hearing and report the
proceedings had therein fully and accurately, and that the
foregoing typewritten pages constitute a transcript of my
shorthand report of the proceedings taken at said time.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand
this _____ day of ________, 2008.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Lisa S. Bishop, RPR
My Commission Expires:
January 27, 2009
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