Is the Corridor “destroying pristine forest?”

NO. Maine’s forestry experts acknowledge that the route of the Corridor was carefully planned to minimize its impact on Maine’s environment. The new segment will run through working forests that have been cut for lumber and paper mills for generations. The other two-thirds of the Corridor will run along existing lines to Lewiston.

Is the Corridor just an extension cord for Massachusetts?

NO. Last summer, Governor Mills negotiated with Hydro Quebec to buy clean electricity through the Corridor. It'll be enough to power 70,000 homes or 10,000 businesses and at a discounted rate. For example Massachusetts consumers will get this electricity for 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, but Maine consumers will get it for 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Are the jobs created by the Corridor project somehow ‘bad’ because they’re temporary?

NO. The idea that the 1,600 jobs created to build the Clean Energy Corridor are inferior because they are temporary is built on a fundamental misunderstanding. All construction jobs are temporary. These jobs pay well and allow Maine workers who normally go away to work to stay here at home.

Is the Clean Energy Corridor really “as wide as the New Jersey Turnpike?”

NO. At its narrowest point, the New Jersey Turnpike has four 12-foot-wide lanes and two 10-foot-wide shoulders, plus the median. That makes the Jersey Turnpike at least 75 feet wide. At its widest points in the northern part of the state — the most commonly associated image of that highway — the Turnpike has 14 lanes and is 300 feet wide.

The new segment of the Clean Energy Corridor will be 54 feet wide — that’s less than the distance from the pitcher’s mound to home plate on a baseball field.

Are only people from away being hired to build the clean energy corridor?

NO, the workers building the Clean Energy Corridor are not all from away. So far, nearly 80 percent of the workers hired to build the Clean Energy Corridor are from Maine. Most are tradespeople who go from project to project, and quite often, those jobs take them out of state.

Is the Clean Energy Corridor using massive transmission towers?

NO. Too often, news outlets and others will use stock photos of massive lattice-style transmission towers with stories about the Clean Energy Corridor. Sometimes two or three of them side-by-side. Those images are misleading. In reality, the Clean Energy Corridor is being built with smaller monopoles designed very specifically to blend in with the environment.

Does Maine benefit from the Clean Energy Corridor at all?

Oh YES! Maine benefits in quite a few ways, starting with receiving some of the clean electricity that will come through the Corridor.

• Last July, Governor Mills negotiated with Hydro Quebec to buy some of that clean electricity for Maine, too. It'll be enough to power 70,000 homes or 10,000 businesses and at a discounted rate. For example Massachusetts consumers will get this electricity for 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, but Maine consumers will get it for 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

• Towns that host a part of the corridor are expected to receive increased tax revenue of $18 million. The City of Lewiston alone will get $7 million in new tax revenue the first year because of the substation. That's more than the Walmart distribution center added. Lewiston city officials are over the moon about it. One called it a "life-saver for the city."

• Decreased CO2 emissions will be the equivalent of 750,000 fewer cars on the road in the region.

• CMP is going to put another $200 million into upgrading Maine's electrical grid to make it more reliable and help it accept more renewables.

• The project creates a $15 million fund to help Mainers install energy-efficient heat pumps.

• With more stable energy supply coming into the grid, Mainers will see fewer spikes in seasonal rates.

• The project will invest $15 million in rural broadband internet access for Western Maine, including some of the infrastructure to allow the fiber-optic cable to be run.

• Maine snowmobilers will get another 50 miles of straightaways, and wood mats used during construction will be donated to snowmobile clubs to be used as bridges.

• The project will invest $15 million to help Maine expand its infrastructure for electric vehicles. More places to plug in.

• The project will proactively invest $140 million in lowering CMP customers' energy bills. Plus $50 million in rate-relief specifically for low-income consumers.

• The project is giving the state $6 million in funding for a variety of educational purposes.

• The project is investing $6 million in Maine's land-conservation fund, which is run by the Nature Conservancy. Plus the 40,000 acres that the project will preserve on its own.

• The new electricity that comes through will lower rates for Maine consumers to a combined tune of somewhere between $14 million and $44 million a year.

• Seven small timber mills from Maine were awarded $20 million in contracts to make mats... which is great from the logging industry in that part of the state.

• The Passamaquoddy Tribe will receive $2.5 million in benefits.

• The project will invest $10.5 million in economic development and tourism for Maine.

• Plus, of course, the 1600 jobs that will be created during construction, for which Mainers will be given preference. So far 360 of the 470 people hired for the project are from Maine, which is great. 77 percent!

• All told, the project will add $573 million to Maine's economy, not including the incidental impacts, like the spending by workers at stores in host communities.