 I just want to say thank you to Maine Youth for Climate Justice, to 350 Maine, the Sierra Club Maine Chapter, and the North American Mega Dam Resistance Alliance for working to organize this event. And I also want to thank our speakers, Melissa Ferretti and Lakota Sanborn, for joining us to speak tonight. We're also going to be sharing a video from Carlton Richards. He's a youth from a Kree First Nations community in Canada who's not able to join us live, but has sent us a video of my voices to share. Okay, so my name is Julia St. Clair. I use she, her pronouns. I'm calling in from South Portland, Maine tonight on Wabanaki land. I work with Maine Youth for Climate Justice for a coalition of over 300 youth and over 20 youth led organizations from across the state that are working on climate justice issues. And I also work with 350 Maine, which is a grassroots environmental organization focused on tackling the climate crisis. And I am really passionately opposed to the CMP corridor and the use of Canadian hydropower. And I'm sure many folks here tonight have already heard about the CMP corridor, but I'm going to talk about some of the work that our organizations have been doing and why this is such an intersectional issue and critical issue within the context of climate justice. Okay. So central main power refer to CMP is building a 145 mile above ground energy transmission line. This is known as the CMP corridor. It's also called the New England Clean Energy Connect project. And this is going through Western Maine to bring hydropower from Quebec, Canada to consumers in Massachusetts. So this project will not be creating any new renewable energy. It's just going to be selling existing energy to Massachusetts and using Maine essentially as an extension cord. And in doing so, CMP is clearing a path through Maine's Western forest, which though parts of this area are working forest, this corridor is going to permanently alter what is considered to be one of the largest tracks of contiguous temperate forest in the world. And this permanent tree clearing is going to have negative impacts on wildlife movement, waterways, wetlands, specifically going to threaten brook trout and other endangered and threatened species. And there's a lot of concern that this damage to the forest will have an impact on the tourism and recreation economies in Western Maine, which also rely on the natural resources in this area. So currently CMP has received all the necessary state and federal permits to proceed with the project, and construction has already started. But tonight we're going to talk about this project about hydropower and how it complicates the ways in which we discuss renewable energy as we consider the full impacts of this corridor and hydroquibax hydroelectric dams. Okay. So I just want to talk a little bit to highlight the opposition that currently exists to the corridor. In 2019, polling found that 65% of Mainers opposed this project. There's also 25 towns along the corridor, which either oppose or have rescinded their support for this project. And I also want to note that CMP has been raided, Central Maine Power has been raided as one of the worst utility companies in America. So Mainers across demographics and across the political spectrum oppose this project and have expressed their frustrations. And additionally, the Penobscot Nation here in Maine, the Heron Pond Wampanoag tribe in Massachusetts have also stated their opposition, as well as the Indian First Nation in Canada. So this opposition is widespread and folks have been very outspoken since the initial proposal of this project. Okay. So just to highlight some of the reasons why we oppose this project, one of which are conservation concerns. So as I mentioned, folks want to protect this track of forest. It's the largest east of the Mississippi that is contiguous. There are wildlife concerns, there's native species concerns. So conservation has been a key reason why a lot of environmental organizations have opposed this project. Another concern is recreation. So protecting this land for recreation purposes, outdoors use. This is a huge part of Maine's economy. And so folks who rely on this part of Maine's economy have been really concerned about the impacts that all that this will have on Maine's outdoor economy. Another concern is public lands. So this corridor does cut through a section of public lands. And this has been offered up for use without the public input. Technically in Maine, it is required that two thirds majority of Maine's Congress vote to approve any use of public lands for these purposes. And this was not done. So thinking beyond Maine's borders, there needs to be a stronger focus on local solutions for renewable energy. So we need to be focusing on energy generation within our regions, so within our state, within our towns, within our own countries, and focusing on clean and renewable sources that also are just rather than allowing large corporations to make these decisions. We also need to be thinking about the climate impacts. So big hydro-powered dams may actually not reduce carbon emissions. When you think about the land that is flooded to build a dam, a lot of carbon is emitted in that process. So we actually need to think about how we're going to reduce demand for energy from big hydro dams. And finally, and one of the most important things that I think is the environmental and climate justice issue and thinking about the impacts on First Nations communities. So these dams in Canada, where this hydro power is coming from, are on First Nations land and have flooded First Nations land. And so we need to be talking about what the environmental justice concerns are, not just focusing on what it means for energy to be renewable. Okay. So just to give everyone a little bit of perspective about what I'm talking about when we say a mega dam or what we're talking about with hydro power coming from Quebec and coming from hydro Quebec. This video just gives a little bit of perspective of how large these dams actually are and the amount of land that is flooded in that process. So in Maine, I think the focus around the conversation with the CMT corridor has been really narrow. It's highlighted the impacts that will be directly on people in the state, but not far beyond the borders. So I think it's really important that we're here tonight having this conversation to give that big a bit of insight. So as you can see from this dam, it's super destructive to think about the amount of land that is flooded for this energy to be produced. And I think here in New England, maybe we don't have a good conception of what this actually looks like, what a dam this massive actually does to the land around it. So hydro Quebec's dams impact the inner nation in Canada. So as I said, this is really a environmental justice concern and also a concern for indigenous sovereignty when we think about the specific impacts on indigenous community throughout Canada. And so I think, yeah, thank you for taking a look at this video. Okay. So I think to continue sort of beyond Maine's borders, this project was originally proposed to go through New Hampshire. Their proposal was rejected. And so Maine became the sort of second option. Vermont also was a proposed location. So this was all because Massachusetts has been pushing for more renewable energy. But again, without looking at what the impacts will be outside of their state's boundaries. So Massachusetts has worked really hard to frame this project as clean, green and renewable and not thinking about that larger impact. Bless you. And just please everyone, if you can make sure you're muted. Thank you. So on to the next slide, sorry. So also just to sort of address some of the the current opposition that's been ongoing, there have been several lawsuits that have been targeting the permits that have been issued for this project as well as the public land usage. I know that Sierra Club, the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Natural Resources Council of Maine have all been involved in these sort of legal lawsuits. And there's also been legal opposition in Canada on the other side of the border. Also in Maine, there's been legislation in the current session that were put bills that were put forward to all to sort of bring a halt to this project. And there's also been a slew of legislative solutions in Maine thinking about how we can better regionally source our renewable energy. Finally, in Maine, there's also been a referendum question that will be on the upcoming ballot that directly focuses on trying to reject this corridor project. I think additionally, folks throughout Maine, Massachusetts and Canada have been very outspoken both in local news and also writing directly to political bodies, calling on the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct an environmental impact statement, for example, or contacting representatives to state their opposition to this project. Okay. So here we're going to share this video that was shared with us from Carlton Richards. This video features him and other front-line voices from First Nations communities. As I mentioned, Carlton Richards was not able to join us tonight. They're not in an area with strong enough Wi-Fi signal. But Carlton is a youth from McCree First Nations community in Canada where hydropower development by Manitoba Hydro has destroyed rivers, streams and forests. And so they've shared this video with front-line voices. And I think we're going to start streaming that now. Each year, Northeastern Governors in the United States and Eastern Canadian Premiers meet at the Coalition of Northeastern Governors Conference, or CONEC, to cooperate on economic, social and environmental issues. These include discussions on energy policy that would tether the United States to Canadian hydroelectricity for the next 40 to 60 years. Hydropower that poisons waters, destroys carbon sequestering forests and fragile ecosystems, and contributes to the cultural genocide of Indigenous people. We demand a voice at Karnak. Manitoba Hydro claims they self-lead energy. As you can see this rock, this is the water level that debris that is caused by Manitoba Hydro. And the water levels are supposed to be wearing way up there. Manitoba Hydro claims they self-lead energy. We pick up debris. This is the water where our children swim. Our people where they hunt fish and trap. What are we going to do about this? We've petitioned actually the Army Corps of Engineers to hold an environmental, prepare an environmental impact statement to accompany the project. We've been abruptly denied that request and are currently seeking consultation with the tribe under the Army Corps Indian consultation policy. They refers our water flow. So our water flow doesn't flow naturally as it should be. Nothing. They said they were going to fluctuate the water the height of a pencil. But the waters have been going up so high they've been going as high as 8 feet, sometimes 12 in some places. You know it's really expensive to buy food from the store so we have to go out hunt, trap and fish for our foods. Our waters are not safe to swim in. We can't even drink it. I've seen my ancestors graves wash out which we have to report. And then within about a couple days we have to do a reburial, a ceremonial reburial. But this is what the Americans, the United States feed on. Our way of life has never stayed altered. Our hunting, fishing, trapping, our seasonal migration in the spring and in the fall. We can't do any more because this thing floods these turbines. They are open and open anytime. We've been traveling back and forth between New York and Boston and other cities in between here. Just delivering the message that the hydro energy that the people buying from Canada started really clean. It's not green. It's basically creating a very terrible human people living there in their traditional lands for thousands of years completely disappeared because of the flooding of the hydro dams. They have to talk to people who have suffered, who have lived in that kind of life situation that's very devastating. The environment being destroyed, our food we're being destroyed, our economy being destroyed, our lives have been destroyed, our emotions, our mental, our spiritual, our mind and everything else. It affects us in so many different ways. It's so devastating that we are disconnected from the beautiful land that we have had in our past. As a tribal nation it is our responsibility to protect and defend our inherent rights to self-determination. We are focused on ensuring a strong future for our tribal citizens and that requires that we protect the land, the water and all of our relatives, human and non-human. We call upon you, the coalition of northeastern governors, to acknowledge and adhere to these inherent rights. So again that video was shared to us by Carlton Richards and now we can hop back on the slides and introduce our two speakers who are here tonight. Our first speaker is Melissa Harding Ferretti, a member of the Herringpond Wampanoag tribe and it's elected chairwoman and president. She works to preserve the tribe's cultural heritage and land rights and is also the president of the Wampanoag language reclamation project and serves on many local state boards and organizations. Speaking after Melissa will be Lakota Sanborn is a Panopska artist and advocate dedicated to indigenous liberation and empowerment. He's a member of the sunlight media collective and organization working to document and produce stories affecting Wabanaki people and the intersections of environmental issues and tribal rights. Lakota has a background in political organizing and community building. He's a member of racial equity and justice and natal point sanctuary. He's also a founding member of the Balmazian land trust a Wabanaki led 501c3 non-profit dedicated to rematriation, food sovereignty and Wabanaki cultural transmission. So I'm gonna hand it over to Melissa to speak with us. What I've said to you in my beloved language is good evening good day. I am called my name is Melissa Ferretti. I am from the Herringpond Wampanoag tribe of Plymouth and Boondale. So I'm really honored to be here and as I said before those of you who I've been so fortunate to share a space with previously may have heard some of these words previously that I that I'm gonna say tonight but I feel that you know it's the message that we really want to send and being raised by an elder of my tribe just watching that video back you know really brings some emotion to mind and I think about how how less of our hunting in our fishing areas we have left now. So I'm going to go on to my speech and then I can add a little bit but so you know the Herringpond Wampanoag tribe and other indigenous communities we all remain deeply connected culturally and spiritually to our homelands and to the waters that our people continue to fish hunt trap and gather on. These spiritual close spiritual and cultural ties to our homelands along with our hunting territory remain as strong as ever even though they're seriously depleted. As indigenous people we stand together with those like all of you here with like concerns to protect the homelands that we all live on in the waters that sustain us. Today our tribal community continues this work of our ancestors to protect the land the water for our youth in the future generations. As I speak to you today indigenous people and tribal communities throughout North America as we all know well remain on the frontline of these efforts to address climate change and to oppose these projects that will be destructive to the natural world our Mother Earth. For our tribe and for all other tribal nations as I said previously in the video our self-determination as people as a people depends on fulfilling our responsibility to protect our youth our elders and to protect all of our relatives human and non-human right most importantly we know that we have a primary responsibility to our tribal youth to ensure that they and their children inherit a planet that we that has been nurtured by us in my work as tribal chairwoman I am inspired by the many indigenous activists educators leaders and non-native alike who are bringing broader public attention to these environmental issues. We know that the homeland of tribal nations in the United States are among the first communities that are most likely to be targeted for projects that are disastrous for the environment and that have multiple destructive impacts on indigenous people's lives tar sands pipelines transmission corridors waste dumping resource extraction sand and gravel all of those things solar on our lands we know that all of these environmental justices and threats injustices and threats to our community and the well-being faced by other indigenous communities whose homelands and sacred places are ravaged by dams flooding transmission corridors or pipelines these are environmental justices and threats to the well-being that we may face in the near future massachusetts here we've known this because we have been at the ground zero of colonial resource extraction for 400 years and I know well people indigenous people in new england are overlooked often ignored when it comes to these matters of energy and resource development yet at the same time and I've said this over and over again as a tribe whose ancestral homeland along with our forest fish and all of our wildlife implement was used by the pilgrims to serve their interests as colonists we and our history as a tribe are directly connected to these decisions that the commonwealth of massachusetts makes about these projects such as this transmission corridor that's proposed by hydro pervet covec central main power and others so raised by an elder of my tribe as I mentioned verna mayharding she was born in 1905 and for verna was born on the herring pond pomp and ag reservation lands what is known to known today as the valley and born dale and cedarville which is in south plumbeth massachusetts so as a child we were taught the ways of our ancestors verna taught me the ways of our ancestors to fish to hunt to gather to trap and to appreciate the land and the water for all that it provides us for sustenance and survival verna like many of our elder elders that have crossed over were traditional knowledge keepers and practitioners she and they many of them speak of these stories now they relied heavily on the land to sustain our families she like many others was an avid angle she's always fishing she loved hunting she prepared game at at the dinner table and half my child was growing up I can remember verna sitting at the picnic table cutting fish how important is that and it was what she referred to when we were small children as living off the fat of the land is what she would say and she would grant rave about how important that was she like all of the other tribal members love tending her garden she canned all the preserves nothing went to waste she would always share her bounty with the community as well non-native or native if somebody in our community was in need verna was certainly going to help them we she was also she was very proud she was generous and although she had very little she would share with those who were less fortunate and imagine how devastating it it was for her and all of our other tribal community members who now have many of them have passed to watch the land destroyed over and over again or land taken for tax reasons or other purposes and to put primary box or to build a mall or something else on our lands and where we would be previously used for sustenance and food so as we have made clear the harring pond often of type we've made clear we're not opposed to renewable energy we're always looking for effective climate solutions and our very existence is built on sustainability but we are in opposition of any greenwashed projects that are disastrous for the environment retina's water supply our homelands and our habitat this rich habitat that all our tribal nations so well all indigenous people love the land they love the land they belong to the land and it remains profoundly important to the well-being of all of our people right as you may know in 2019 I think we spoke with this earlier the harring pond tribe we issued a statement of solidarity and we're when we're very proud that we stood with our sisters and brothers with the Penobscot and the Indian nations and rejecting the dangerous hydroelectric projects that directly impact not only their food sources and their their sustainability but their human rights as first nations and tribal communities in Canada and the United States we're proud to stand with our brothers and sisters of all tribal nations in indigenous communities and inserting the right to protect ourselves and all of our relatives and relations against environmental destruction including these proposed projects this corridor that might come through right through to massachusetts our human rights are are at risk here we know that we as indigenous people have this human right the un declaration indigenous rights on the rights of indigenous peoples states that endorsed by the state department in 2010 we have a right to good faith consultation and cooperation about matters that impact our lands our communities and our future to us the land the water and all wildlife with whom we exist are sacred in closing i'm just going to briefly share a little bit of an article I I had read previously by Amy Dickens it was titled indigenous peoples bear the brunt of global green wash she begins and we know this well as ever more companies and governments pledge to go green and protect the forest the world's tribal peoples should be among the men the main beneficiaries rights Amy yet the reverse is the case all too often the promises are the purest green wash in my case could be here in massachusetts used to conceal the human environmental tragedy in land grabbing for plantations mines logging even they say conservation it's evident the green washing is evolving right it's not getting better and with that the challenge that tribal people face as conservation and development organizations collaborate with the irresponsible corporations the distinction between protector and perpetrator becomes blurred so in closing you know some may say you know you're in massachusetts you're in plenus why are you here to talk about what's going on in vain well my father who retired he's he grew up he was born in the valley here in the herring pond wampanoa coalwimps but he retired up in dexter main and he now lives there so it's important to us some of our people could be in that region and it's just as important to us here to protect and to to speak out for our brothers and sisters and the other in from the probscott and all the other tribal nations so it's important to me anywhere in the united states so thank you for listening and i really appreciate sharing the space with all of you when i look forward to hearing my fellow panelists and thanks so much thank you melissa i'm going to pass it over to lakota wakudom hello it's uh it's really great to see all of you today thank you so much and thank you melissa for for your presentation and your speech um yeah there's a few things that i wanted to touch on we don't have a lot of time but i wanted to run run through some things that have been floating around in my head for the past few weeks um and one of which i feel like this really central to this whole thing is that mega dams and dams in general have historically been used as tools not only for you know resource control but also as control over indigenous populations as well in many instances you know dams were erected in very specific locations in order to curb the food supplies of native peoples these dams in many ways disrupted transportation to hunting grounds and you know they were really strategic in that you know these these these rivers here in Maine were our main source of transportation between the different tribal communities and when you block the rivers and you know flood different areas and make it so it's harder to cross it's harder to meet diplomatically with other nations to tell them about what's going on and and the encroaching that's happening and so um you know the loss of habitat in the sacred spaces due to flooding is just another element of that as well um that this this whole this whole thing around dams and mega dams like it has historical precedent right and so so what we have seen here in Maine um back in the early 1800s actually in 1801 the petition was was made for um by the Penobscot Nation to the Commonwealth of of Massachusetts that was against the building of a mill and dam just below what's quoted as within gunshots range of of our reservation and that dam is still there today um people for you know over the course of the next 40 years we're talking about how devastating it was to the fish populations and how um we didn't have the means to to feed our communities anymore because of these dams that were going up um we pleaded with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts but consistently our our rights were denied and if if you can imagine you know the impact of that with people who are riverine who rely on the rivers and rely on the waterways for food and travel um these things going up really severed a lot of our abilities to thrive as peoples which we have been doing for tens of thousands of years here in this region um you know currently that that corridor that is going through western Maine that is in a space where there were many travel communities who once lived there but as the course of colonialism was was uh continuing a lot of those folks were massacred or fled to different areas of neighboring communities or up into Quebec um informed communities there as a means of escape and a lot of those folks who fled from those regions traveled the route that is actually basically true true to the map um the route that the cmp corridor is going through and the fact of the matter is that we don't have enough information about the um you know the artifacts or the sacred sites um that being a really well known traveling route from Quebec down to this region um there there could be any number of things along along that area that could never be returned um once they're you know destroyed with the the cutting of these forests um yeah it was it was brought up earlier and I really want to just touch on that that my cousin said this earlier today to me that this this project is being carried out this is like the largest developmental project in Maine and it's being conducted by a company that has the worst in the nation customer satisfaction for three consecutive years cmp um and yeah last last year Penobscot Nation put out that letter uh as you heard our chief Kirk Francis say in that video um where we stood in solidarity and we still stand in solidarity with our new um brothers and sisters and our Wampanoag brothers and sisters in in being an opposition to this um yeah I think it's really important that when we're talking about green energy and thinking about our futures as you know speak as our features as a species on this planet but also as protectors of other forms of life on this planet that you know we we need to be really aware of greenwashing and the the reason why these kind of things happen um you know when our when our basic model for as a society for economic development is based on imperialism and is based on land theft and destruction and extraction um you know these things are going to keep happening you know as as we're seeing a transition from fossil fuels into green energy into um to lithium batteries for electric cars or for solar panels what we're going to see then is is this model of imperialism this mindset behind it that's been driving fossil fuels they're just going to change that out for um you know green energy products so the same exact mindset that went into getting us to this position where we are in dire straits is going to be utilized to push for lithium mining and indigenous territories things like mega-downs are going to continue to to happen in in our territories um you know there's there's ways that these things need to be done um in order to to protect us right as a species and as melissa said like we we as a nation too and and i as an individual i'm fully supportive of renewable resources um but they can't be done in this way where it's literally just a money-making scheme where the environmental impacts of you know the flooding of that there was two thousand two hundred square miles of a new territory it's two thousand two hundred square miles is how big that reservoir is the amount of carbon that was released in that i i don't i i can't even comprehend the amount of of carbon that was stored in those trees that is just not there anymore and you know the the thing that we keep seeing and this is the case on the kennebec river here in the state of main um where there are four four dams in the kennebec that are canadian owned right um the i think the name of the company is brook field renewables um and currently we we were in uh attempts to get those four dams removed because the the power that they are generating is very negligible um compared to the environmental destruction that is being waged against uh spawning fish and specifically also atlantic salmon who are a keystone species in the region um they are at the brink of extinction because of these dams and the inability to spawn in these grounds that they've been spawning in for thousands of years and so what you see often is is these transnational projects uh between the u.s and canada are so easily approved yet anytime we try to um go through the proper means and their proper channels in order to challenge these things it's so much more difficult for us um it when we petitioned the army corps of engineers you know it's like we're we're petitioning an american-based uh entity to go across the border and study the impacts in canada and they can easily say no because of the border so you know it it really needs to be addressed um first and foremost why it's so easy for these developmental projects to span entire continents basically while our ability as a people to um study the imp even just to study the impacts of those things are so limited um yeah and i i don't have too much more that i i don't want to take up too much space here and speaking to innu and i really wish that some folks from indonesian could be here to you know discuss the impacts that have happened directly to their people um even just watching that video is filled with a real deep sadness um even here even here in the state of main we've we've you know been dealing with the theft of our river which the the state of main has you know illegally without any sort of transactional approach without any sort of signing of treaties the state of main has effectively um been working to steal the river from us as a people and my heart aches just thinking about what the people in innu are going through and how something like that could easily have happened here or happened here in the future with the state of main attempting to steal the river and as these green energy futures are being imagined and so i really just want to you know have a brief moment of silence for for innu i'm just considering you know what what they're going through and yeah so i just want to take a minute for that and then i'll say a closing so if folks could join me in just a moment of silence so green energy products and projects rather are are a must for the future of our species on the planet but also for the continuation of so many other species um but more importantly than that is the intent and the mindset of how we approach green energy and how we approach renewable energy projects as a whole um any kind of developmental projects right important questions to consider are whose land are the projects being carried out on are the indigenous peoples there fully consenting to the project are indigenous people not only a consideration in the process but actual leaders at the table with the power to make the decisions required are native people benefiting equally from the projects as non natives are our treaty rights being upheld or unceded lands being seized illegally ultimately we need to move forward and tackling climate change with the perspectives of those who have been actively fighting against the impacts for the longest period as Melissa said we are the first people to face the impacts of climate change and we've also been doing it for you know the past 500 years since the the beginning of colonialism we're seeing and seeing the the landscape shift and change so much due to extraction um at the hands of colonizers those who have the intimate connection with the land those who are land-based peoples are the ones that need to be leading these movements and you can't you can't say that you're doing the world justice or investing in clean futures when you have blood on your hands from projects like this where you're just filing graves where you're killing countless relatives and using a relative to do that which is part of what makes it really hard for me to think of too is like the river you know that that is a relative to the inner people I'm sure just as much as the Panoska River is a relative for us and to see that happen is really devastating and so those who have the intimate connection with the land are the ones that need to be leading as I said and we cannot beat climate change and these these lingering effects that we're going to see for the next you know decades and decades even if we made the full transition right now away from from fossil fuels we can't we can't we can't envision this future without indigenous peoples leading and I again I just really want to say thank you to Melissa and thank you to all of those who have a part in in organizing this talk today and to all of you who are listening yeah could you Willie Winnie um thank you so much Lakota and Melissa for sharing your stories good evening everyone my name is Audrey Huffnagle and I work for with Maine Youth for Climate Justice so now that you have heard these stories from these amazing speakers you're probably wondering what you can do to help stop the CMP corridor and mega dam hydropower so there are several ways that you can take action and get involved um first of all you can join the Sierra Club action team um and there's a link in the in the slide um and you can you can use that to learn more and to join um also youth so anyone under the age of 30 can join Maine Youth for Climate Justice's energy campaigns team um which is working on this effort and you can email the NYCJ email which is also in the slide um you can also join 350 Maine's CMP opposition working group by emailing info at 350main.org and you can learn more about this issue from the North American mega dam resistance alliance um at the link in the slide which all those links will also be put in the chat so um so for the calls to action um so you can contact your representatives both in Maine and Massachusetts to let them know that you oppose this project and Canadian hydropower um and ask them to support a just transition to um clean energy you can also write an LTE or an off-ed um and we put together an an LTE guide um which can be maybe screen shared um but it has it has some tips about writing letters to the editor um and an overview of the CMP corridor and of mega dam hydropower and that that issue and it walks you through talking points how to submit and also includes a bunch of resources um if you get an LTE or an op-ed published email info at 350main.org or tag at 350main on social media and the first two people to get LTEs or op-eds published and to let 350main know we'll get a signed copy of the book Arctic Blue Deserts flattening the Arctic's pulse by Stefan Kasperzak which is about how mega dam hydropower creates unchecked heat pollution and contributes to the climate crisis also you can attend the upcoming Maine Department of Environmental Protection Public Hearing which is October 19th um there's one session starting at 9am and the other section is at 5 30pm and it's about suspending the license for the CMP corridor um to use land in Maine after a recent um superior court decision which challenged the license um and that's open to the public um there should be a link in the chat um to if you want to speak there and you can also learn more at that link um and also Maine Youth for Climate Justice asks Maine voters to vote yes on question one um which is a citizens referendum that would stop the CMP corridor and that will be on the ballot on November 2nd um which is the election this year and there will be a link in the chat where you can learn more so now I will um pass it back to Julia to introduce the Q&A so I'm gonna hand um the Q&A over to our moderator Cassie uh again if you have any questions please feel free to drop them in the chat and we will start answering questions thank you so much Julia um yeah so I think there were some questions already asked in the chat that had been answered um but one was specific um to the Penobscot river so Lakota I'm wondering if you wanted to expand on that um someone asked um with the context that there are so many projects going on like line three and line five all over the world in Minnesota the tribes gave their wild rice person hood and are using it in tribal court against unbridge so they're wondering could write to the river be established like this in Maine and give the river person hood uh yeah so thank you for the question um in Maine the Penobscot river is a census member believe of of the nation and so we we recognize the person hood of the river that's a process that was began uh some years ago and yeah our our hope is that um in this case with the state of Maine and the the illegal seizure illegal even by the means of of the colonial court systems um we're hoping that the supreme court of the united states will hear our petition to that uh ruling that took place um we've been in this fight for you know almost a decade now um and yeah I mean that is that is one angle and that's something that we we had already previously been working on and you know we we're we're still fighting and still hoping that you know even in the system that that is based in in upholding certain power dynamics that their laws themselves will be respected but yeah awesome thanks Lakota um the next question um I'll include the whole question says if there were no electricity demand there would be no need for imported energy closing down the traditional coal and nuclear power stations including locally creates the demand now preferentially for clean power polluting outside our borders so how to solve this conundrum all energy producing technologies create waste and pollution should we maybe instead just reduce our energy and material intensive lifestyle followed by reducing our numbers um who wants to take that all three of you can too we also have julian from the north american um mega dam resistance lines joining to answer any questions related to their work so anyone can take that I can also repeat the question too um I can try to answer that thanks for that question um maybe not answer it but I think energy efficiency and reducing demand is certainly a part of the equation when it comes to how we think about clean energy um or green energy um so yeah that's a great question and obviously quite a big one too and and how we do that and you know I don't have the answer with regards to how we do that but um we definitely believe that that efficiency um an overall reduction of demand is really important um when it comes to kind of the holistic you know equation of how do we transition over to clean energy and like adjust um and meaningful and consider it way so not sure if that answered that but thanks for that question thanks julian um lakota and melissa do you want to speak to that question at all no worries if not I think I have all the information for that one so I think I'll pass on that one takes great on one point on that um yeah where it says reducing our numbers um I do hope that that doesn't imply some kind of like population narrative um just because I really want to to um give some space for that where there's a false narrative around this myth of overpopulation um being like a driver of climate change or something that we need to address immediately when really what we have is in a system that's built on overproduction and uh the extraction of resources in mass and it's just based on so much waste and so it's not it doesn't have anything to do with reducing our numbers um it has more to do with building systems that are sustainable because we have the ability to do so we have actually way more resources than we could ever possibly need as a species um so yeah I I don't necessarily have all the answers but I know that it starts with getting permission and um consulting and working with indigenous peoples in those areas perfect so thank you um someone else is wondering what other states are receiving mega dam power from hydrocobac and then Julian if you want to take that or someone else wants to jump in yeah um so the answer is it's a bit complicated because of how so I'll just speak for New England but um how energy distribution goes in New England and obviously it's a mixed portfolio of um fossil fuels um renewables and hydro um so but other states New York is is a big one um and I'm not sure if anyone's heard but um the Champlain Hudson Power Express it's also known as CHIPI is a proposed transmission corridor that would go onto the Hudson River um causing detrimental environmental impacts um and that would also bring Canadian hydro power uh to New York um Vermont receives a lot of their power um and they're one of the you know a state that considers um hydro power or large mega dam hydro power um renewable which not a lot of states actually do um or might be the only one as of right now other states are trying to change that um and yeah of course Massachusetts main receives some um so it's it's uh it's you know most states in New England at least are receiving some amount of hydro power from Quebec thanks Julian um this question yeah Amy makes a good point in the chat that we do really need to organize regionally and we hope that this this webinar is a good starting point for continuing the regional work um so someone else asked what impact could PTP the main consumer own utility have on the corridor um look at it do you want to take that or I wish I had a good answer for that question um my hope is that since it would be consumer owned and since the project is so uh opposed by the main public that other means would would happen as a result um I'm not exactly sure um I'm an expert on on the consumer owned utilities uh bill or um you know what what kind of mitigation could happen as a result of that but I think that that would definitely be a preferred model especially when cmp is again the worst rated consumer uh what's the word they're the worst rated company that's based in utilities in the United States for three years in a row so I'm pretty sure the public would be able to be uh you know more reliable than that hopefully thanks for that yes that's a big question um I'm going to throw in the chat for anyone who's interested um the link to our power main they're the the group working on pushing for consumer owned utility in Maine um and then another question I think that we got earlier it's not as related to hydro but more on um you know greenwashed renewable energy solutions um well if I'm going to throw this to you because I know you're working on solar in um your community but someone is curious about power market um and they keep getting mailings from them to sign up for clean energy produced at solar farms throughout Maine particularly the farm in China Maine and they think it seems like a good idea but they're cautious if there's a downside to this business model any thoughts their opinions about this or solar so I think you're muted Melissa oh can you hand me now is that is that okay can you hand me all right sorry about that yeah I mean I don't really know how to answer that question um it's kind of a tricky one right I mean I keep getting mailings from them to sign up for clean energy and I get those same very same same uh mailings but what you know what our problem is is when we think about solar solar farms you know there are places other than destroying an entire region you know acres and hundreds of acres of pine there and so I guess I mean that's a tough question what's it involved what are they trying to do is the power market good or not I mean it all depends on where they're trying to put this solar power so I guess that's that's kind of a I don't know that's a tough question all in all but all I can say is for us we're not opposed to maybe solar power if it was on on buildings or or other areas that don't graze over and destroy an entire forest and all the habitat that was there so there is a downside to that model depending on who's who's doing it and what they're doing with it I guess so to speak does that make sense okay it's a tough one I just want to jump jump in there quick and I think you know I don't know anything about um power market or what we're referring to specifically here but I think more generally we need to know more about where our energy is coming from and we need to to think critically about where our energy is coming from I think that's one of I hope everyone's taking that as a key takeaway from this conversation um and that just because energy is renewable it does not mean that it is necessarily good so I hope that we can all walk away from this thinking about you know where when we turn the lights on where does that energy come from thanks Julia um let's see I've gotten one more question and this person is asking is there any hydropower that is considered clean green or renewable I don't know Julian if you want to take that or all three of you can jump in where you see fit um sure I can try to answer that um it's that's a hard question um it it depends a lot on the community's impacted um you know it oftentimes as um Lakota and Melissa were talking about when you know these dam a lot of dams and hydro projects were created um and their locations and um impacts were were intentional um and harmed and actively harm um indigenous communities so you know it's it's hard to answer that but you know as far as environmental impacts go and impacts the ecosystems I mean dam all dams have really detrimental impacts on um on ecosystems on rivers um on land downstream um and on communities ultimately so again that's you know it's a question that you know can be a bit subjective depending on um the community's impacted and all that but but overall um hydropower almost always has a some type of negative impact on you know either human rights communities um or the environment of course yeah and Lakota and Melissa do you want to jump into I know Lakota you were speaking to your experience with dams near your community as well yeah I feel kind of um what Julian said makes a lot of sense I mean it it's no matter no matter what kind of um energy extraction you're going to be doing from the land there's going to be some kind of negative impacts right um it's just all about kind of keeping this this idea of reciprocity and balance and understanding how when you implement one kind of change in an ecosystem that's going to reverberate across all of the other elements of that ecosystem um since life is you know it's a web we're all interconnected um so yeah I think there's always going to be some kind of um negative consequences but that's for any kind of energy we have it's all about finding the ones that are the most mitigating um yeah Melissa do you want to jump in no pressure I think you're muted I'm sorry I had to walk out for just a moment I had the grandson who came in on the which question are we at I'm very sorry about that oh no worries um sorry to put you on the spot uh the question is do you think there's any hydropower that could be considered clean green or renewable oh I mean that's a loaded question because generally it's tearing through some sort of land water source or other so that's difficult for me to answer if it's an indigenous person because we know what the results are so could it be I mean I don't know it's it seems to me that so far it really hasn't done much much good for people if it's if it's ruining our water source and our food sources so I mean I don't know that's another one of those kind of hard questions right we want renewable energy we want to save the climate we want to do what's right but at the same time at what cost right I would think our our new friends would not agree and would say no there isn't because of what they've lost so I would certainly want to sit on that side more so than the other I think we are opposed to it because it is gonna no matter how you look at it it doesn't go through you know so the the wealthy neighborhoods it would generally probably go through an indigenous neighborhood or on through our land so I would say that's that's a tough one to give a yes or no to but at this point I would mean toward the other side obviously for these reasons yeah thank you and just to reemphasize we are recommending at least mania for climate justice is for question one in mean vote yes to reject the corridor it's got funny language you have to vote yes to reject something but that's the referendum question and then another question I thought is someone is wondering if the dam construction in Quebec is completed Julian do you want to take that one or Lakota sorry I went you went off saw that you went off mute no it's okay if they mean like the the mega dam the church will falls mega dam like yeah I'm fairly certain that's been completed it's not in Quebec it's in it's in Labrador correct Julian yeah that's correct yeah so yeah and with that project so Hydro Quebec also there's also now core energy which is in Labrador Newfoundland and they do feed power down to Quebec hence we might get some of the power on so there's also a proposed project which is I believe so there was muskrat falls muskrat falls mega dam in Newfoundland Labrador and construction hasn't started on another possible project which is known as Gull Island but there is heavy concern that you know construction might be started on that and that would actually be an even bigger dam size-wise mega wide you know generating capacity wise um then muskrat falls and muskrat falls was is quite large and has really detrimental impacts and there was heavy resistance and in communities there um as far as Quebec goes um yeah it's right now that as far as I know there aren't any active construction projects um however there is um data that you know we've gathered and worked on that kind of points to with all of Hydro Quebec's exports and their commitments be that to Massachusetts to New York and other states and just to the province um they might not be able to meet that demand and that would mean either falling back on the fossil fuels um to meet part of that which obviously is not at all what what needs to happen right now um or additional dam construction would absolutely be necessary to meet um demands so hope that answers that. Seeing any more questions in the chat but Lakota and Melissa is there anything else you want to say or promote or anything like that we've got a little bit of extra time um oh okay sorry we have one more question it just went into the chat so I'll ask that um the question is is Hydro Quebec currently selling all the power they produce and if so then why do they want to send any to Massachusetts do they want to flood increase acreage I don't know who wants to take that. I can I can try to start answering that um so I'm just reading it again um so they a lot of the power obviously goes to um ratepayers or users in Quebec um but but they do make a lot of money out of exports so um I mean just the CMT quarter alone over a period of time would bring in billions of dollars in revenues for them um so it's um as far as them wanting to flood increase acreage I you know I can't answer that but um um it's definitely they would make a lot of money off of um they do make a lot of money off of exports so yeah. Yeah Melissa or Lakota do you want to jump in to add anything else? I mean I I think I can just add to it I mean as as he as you said it's it's all about money right it always comes down to who's going to make the most money so I don't necessarily know all the details of this you know this proposed but I do know that you know Massachusetts calls calls HydroCoback New England's clean energy partner and we it's all about the money so I I don't know exactly how to answer that question and what what the benefits would they think would be but as I said it's no benefit if it's tearing through the land so yeah and Julian I'm sorry Lakota might have more on that. Now we're getting a bunch of new questions so I'll sort of circle back to those um someone also asked do we want to remove existing dams and corridors or just prevent new construction? Pretty open-ended question so I'll let anyone jump in. Yeah I mean I feel like it depends on which dam it is um as I said there are four dams on the Kennebec there's actually more dams than that I think there might be a total of six but there's four dams on the Kennebec that are producing negligible negligible amounts of energy um and as I said in in my piece like they are devastating not only Atlantic salmon but all of the other species that relied on Atlantic salmon as a part of their diet you know everything being interconnected right and so yeah there certainly are existing dams I mean there's even the dam the dams on the Penobscot River which are damaging our ability to to fish sustainably if the water wasn't so polluted um yeah so I mean it really depends it's a case by case basis I mean who's benefiting from the energy who's benefiting from the dams who's benefiting from the corridors is it native people or is it everyone at the expensive native people um so yeah that's what I have. Well if there are Julian anything to add to that no worries if not um that was great um I think yeah I mean ideally um removing dams would be great because um you know as everyone's said you know they do have really um detrimental impacts on communities on ecosystems on the climate um and worldwide um you know 60 percent of the world's rivers are fragmented by dams reservoirs um and those types of projects um and rivers play a really important role obviously in ecosystems for communities for carbon sequestration for a bunch of different things so restoring those rivers and those ecosystems absolutely should be a priority. Yeah I think just to jump in like you see in Maine and Massachusetts a lot of groups oftentimes they're very um white led kind of championing dam removal work in the United States and saying we must do this and then on a flip side saying you know supporting the corridor in these projects are not thinking about where the energy is coming from um so I think that's one way to think of it too like if you want to see a dam removed in your community or your seat like then the dam should be removed even if they're already existing in other communities where the energy could be imported from um yeah I think another question um it's kind of related to this but this person is wondering if there's a role for smaller mid-size water power sources using abandoned who's who's sorry I don't know if I'm sorry in mill races that do not go all the way across the waterway of which there are a lot of in Massachusetts I don't know if anyone has any experience or thoughts on that um well so I think you're needed if you're trying to answer this yeah no I'm sorry I was just kind of reading it out loud to myself I don't know answer that question that's another tough one it's a role for small and small that's tricky I don't know if somebody with more experience on that may be able to answer that question I don't have yeah it's a good question yeah if either of you have any thoughts but kind of a big question a lot of big questions tonight yeah so I'm not seeing any other questions and I know we're 10 minutes away from the end of the event so thank you everyone for sending in your questions thank you Lakota and Melissa for speaking and Julian jumping in to answer some more of those uh North American Megadam resistance lines related questions um again Lakota and Melissa if there's anything you want to promote or um add feel free to jump in um then we can wrap up I just want to say thank you and I think it's just important as we said you know for these companies organizations people just to remember who who's in your region and I think it's you know there's a lot to learn in this this whole area it's you know myself I I don't come from uh experience in you know a lot of this environmental work I'm I've been you know trained with the indigenous knowledge and I know a lot about those things so there's really a lot to take in and a lot to learn and there's a lot of unanswered questions as I said in my comment earlier so every day is a new opportunity to learn and educate ourselves and I do um I saw someone made a comment about new deserts um someone was really great gifted me both those books so I do recommend those too so thank you yeah and I also wanted to say thank you so much um it's really it's really good to be here and I'm really glad that that more environmentally based groups are are seeking out indigenous folks to you know share in our experiences and to talk about um how these things are impacting us and kind of more creative um long lasting solutions to mitigate climate change and the impacts that are happening um it means a lot and I hope to see more of this in the future for sure and more folks from other communities as well um you know who can be on to to share in their experience so thank you so much for you know putting this on everyone who's been involved in this it's been great yeah thank you both right Julia I'll pass it back to you yeah so I I just want to thank you all so much again for for taking some time out of your night and joining us tonight um I encourage you all to stay involved to bring this conversation back to your community to the organizations that you work with I hope that we all can keep having these critical and sometimes complicated conversations about energy and environmental justice and really considering the the full impacts um of our energy use especially on indigenous communities as well as the climate and the environment um there's going to be a follow-up email sent tonight with resources to all attendees and we're going to share this recording with you all as well and I just want to thank you again so much to our speakers Lakota and Melissa um to really take in the time to to share everything with us and again thank you to our organizers Mayne for climate justice 350 main we see our club main chapter and Namra as well as all of the sponsors um that jumped on to to help support this event tonight and yeah we hope to to keep keep this conversation going and stop this corridor and and these energy um projects from big hydroelectric dams so thank you all and we'll we'll hope to see you all soon not with us thank you again