"I've been biding my time on this whole power line issue, figuring that I should just shut up and let other people have their say. And boy, have they. Never in my 63 years on the planet have I seen North Country friends and neighbors so indignant about an issue as the proposed gigantic power line to connect supposedly 'green' Quebec hydropower to the insatiable power-hungry masses to the south."
"How can such an abomination as this gigantic power line be actually considered?
Do the people who take such pleasure in carbon-trading and supposed 'sustainable' and 'green' anything, to reach their 25-percent whatever, not have a clue about the trade-off? . . . Do the 25-percent 'green' people have any clue about the price the Montagnais and the Naskapi and the Cree [Quebec First Nations tribes] paid for the supposedly 'green' power we're supposed to feel good about? . . . Who cares? Well, I've been there, and seen the price."
"We here in the North Country are at rope's end. . . .We have only the landscape left . . .until we can find a way of making things again. We look to leadership to do better things . . .than grin and pose about another shopping mall or snip a ribbon on a power line transit station in Franklin (are you reading this, Gov. John Lynch?)."
"This isn't a not-in-my-backyard issue. It is far beyond that. It's everyone's back yard, just as the gulf oil spill was and is everyone's back yard."
"What's this about? . . . In the end, it is about this spectacular region's beauty, heritage, and pride. How could anyone conceive of such an offense?"
The full column is in today's print issue of the Union Leader.
Bury the Northern Pass is a group of concerned citizens in Grafton County; we work in solidarity with our neighbors to the north in Coos County. To join our email list, write to BuryNorthernPass@gmail.com.