By Richard Valdmanis
BOSTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Maine Governor Paul LePage on
Friday said building high-voltage transmission lines from
eastern Canada will be key to helping New England cut its
soaring electricity costs, which he said had driven out
businesses and cost the region jobs.
"There's a better future for New England if we open the door
to Quebec," he said at the New England-Canada Business Council
energy forum in Boston. "The new horizon is in partnering with
Canada, our family to the North, and to make things happen."
New England has the highest electricity prices in the
continental United States, according to the U.S. Department of
Energy, a situation that has worsened after the closure of
nuclear and coal-fueled power plants in recent years.
LePage and other New England governors have long supported
the idea of buying hydropower from Quebec and Labrador to ease
the crunch but billions of dollars worth of proposals to build
transmission lines have faced local and legislative opposition
on environmental and aesthetic grounds.
The region also is contending with a pipeline bottleneck
that has limited the supplies of natural gas from the huge
Marcellus shale reserve under Pennsylvania, Ohio and West
Virginia.
"For five years I've been telling folks that there's hydro
across the border and there's natural gas a day's drive away
from Maine," LePage said. "It's just a matter of getting the
infrastructure in place."
The New England Coalition for Affordable Energy estimates
that infrastructure constraints have cost power consumers in the
region about $7.5 billion in the past three years.
High and volatile prices in New England also have been
blamed for a series of business closures, including mills and
manufacturing plants. LePage said Maine had been particularly
hard-hit.
"The state of Maine has lowered its emissions by 30
percent," he said. "We didn't do anything. That's why we lowered
emissions: we lost our industrial base. It's insane."
(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Bill Trott)