Maine’s hydropower infrastructure should be viewed as an asset, not a liability. Removing dams will increase our reliance on natural gas. Natural gas is billed as a “bridge fuel” — cleaner than coal and necessary for providing consistent baseload power until renewables catch up. Hydropower serves the same purpose, with fewer health risks.

Take the Westbrook Xpress Project. The final stages of this pipeline expansion were approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in June 2020. According to the environmental assessment, emissions from the compressor station alone were projected to increase by 234,560 CO2e tons per year. That figure doesn’t include the actual concentrations of VOCs, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants linked to asthma, cancer and neurological disease. These emissions are poorly monitored and largely absent from public discourse.

Why do we hear more about eel passage than kids breathing toxic air? One reason is regulatory imbalance. Dam relicensing requires extensive state and federal review; interstate pipelines face only federal oversight.

Much of Maine hydropower is owned by Brookfield Renewable, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management (BAM); BAM also owns Maritimes & Northeast Pipelines, a partner in the Westbrook Xpress project. BAM is the world’s largest private infrastructure investor, with most energy assets in oil and gas. Their value in owning Maine’s dams may be in preventing others — especially public entities — from doing so.

I support stringent oversight of Maine’s dams, but the goal should be compliance, not demolition. If Brookfield fails to meet its obligations, it should be required to sell to an operator that will.

Jamie Roux
Orr’s Island