 All right. It's now 11 o'clock. So let's get started. My name is Sam Danowski. I'm the state director of Sierra Club's Connecticut chapter. I use she her pronouns. I'm coming to you from Connecticut, the occupied lands of many indigenous tribes, including but not limited to the Knitmuck, Mohegan, Pequot, Niantic, Bogusit, and Scatacoke. On behalf of the Sierra Club, the North American Megadam Resistance Alliance, NAMRA for short, and the indigenous leaders here today. I welcome you and thank you all for attending. I want to recognize and thank the Sierra Club staff and leaders joining in and supporting this work, including our national team and our chapters in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut. We're gathered together on this day because the New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers are scheduled to hold their annual conference where they discuss issues including international trade and energy. We are here to raise our opposition to large empowerment Canadian hydro because of the negative impacts it has on indigenous communities and the environment. We'll start with an incredibly moving video that features the voices of indigenous communities about the devastating impacts that Canadian hydro has on their rights, lands, culture, livelihoods, health, and more. We will hear from Meg Sheehan from NAMRA, Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation, Chair Lady Melissa Ferretti of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and John Gonzales of the Standing Bear Network. We'll have time at the end for questions first from the press and then from attendees. Let's begin with the video. A big thank you to John Gonzales for producing this video. Through it, we can witness the terrible destruction that Canadian hydro has on indigenous people and go ahead and start the video. Each year, northeastern governors in the United States and eastern Canadian premiers meet at the Coalition for the Northeastern Governors Conference or CONEC to cooperate on economic, social, and environmental issues. These include discussions on energy policy that will tether the United States to Canadian hydro electricity for the next 40 to 60 years. Hydro-powered the Poison's Waters destroys carbon sequestering forests and fragile ecosystems and contributes to the cultural genocide of indigenous people. We demand a voice at CONEC. Manitoba Hydro claims they self-clean out of energy. As you can see this rock, this is the water levels. The debris that is caused by Manitoba Hydro. I am standing on my stand and the water levels are almost clear. Manitoba Hydro claims they self-clean energy. We pick up debris. This is the water where our children swim, our people where they hunt, fish, and trout. What are we going to do about this? We petitioned actually the Army Corps of Engineers to hold an environmental, prepare an environmental impact statement to accompany the project. We denied that request in currently seeking consultation with the tribe under the Army Corps of Indian Consultation Policy. They reverse our water flow so our water flow doesn't flow naturally. This should be nothing. They said they were going to fluctuate the water height of a pencil, but there's have been going up so high they've been going as high as 80 sometimes 12 in some places. 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. I've seen my ancestors graves wash out, which we have to report. And then within about a couple of days, we have to do a reburial, ceremonial reburial. The Americans, the United States, feed on. Our way of life, as we feed it, altered, planting, fishing, trapping, our seasonal migration in the spring, in the fall, we can't do any more. The persisting flecks, these turbines there are open and open at any time. 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 environment. People living there in your traditional house for thousands of years completely disappeared because of the flooding of the hydrodams. Well, what can the people of United States do to help is 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 were being destroyed, our economy being destroyed, our lives have been destroyed, our emotions are mental, our spiritual, our mind and everything else. It affects us in so many different ways. And 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 nonhuman. We call upon you, the Coalition of Northeastern Governors, to acknowledge and adhere to human's inherent rights. Ms. John Thomas. So, a very powerful way to start. I'd like to turn it over to Meg Sheehan for remarks from Namro. Thank you, Samantha. Today we're delivering petitions and messages from hundreds of people impacted by hydropower in Canada. We demand that government leaders on both sides of the border heed the voices of these communities and stop fraudulently greenwashing this electricity. Our message for Governor Baker of Massachusetts, immediately withdraw support for the main transmission corridor and cancel the contracts with Hydro Quebec. Governor Mills in Maine, immediately withdraw from the backroom deal that you made with Hydro Quebec and a van grid for the main corridor. Governor Cuomo, immediately cease secret negotiations with Blackstone Group and Hydro Quebec to import more Canadian hydropower. Premier Legault of Quebec, we don't want your dirty hydropower. These are blood megalons. Stop the fraudulent marketing of this electricity to the U.S. Premier Fury of Newfoundland and Labrador Province, immediately cancel the Gull Island Megadam and implement all conditions of the Muscat Falls Megadam permit. Our alliance will not stand by while you governors and premiers make secret deals with Hydro Quebec so that big corporations can profit from our rivers and electricity stolen from indigenous communities. Thank you. Thank you, Meg. And now Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation. Well, good morning, everyone. My name is Chief Kirk Francis. I've been the elected chief at Penobscot Indian Nation here in the state of Maine for about 15 years. I'm proud members of the Wabanaki Confederacy here in Maine. And I thank you for the opportunity to be able to talk today on this important issue. As you saw in the video, the Penobscot Nation started to become very concerned with these projects as the more we're involved in them, particularly around understanding and not being so caught up in what was going on locally, but trying to understand the A to Z impacts of a project like this. What happens at the source and what happens at the end result and everything in between? We have requested, as the video indicated, an environmental impact study from the Army Corps of Engineers on the project and that was abruptly denied. We have since started to demand consultation under the Corps' Indian Consultation Policy and are waiting to be heard on that. The impacts of projects like this are obviously not only concerning, they just should not be happening in this day and age. And just a couple of examples of people we've talked to in our brothers and sisters in Canada and the Innu Nation in Labrador, for example, significantly impacted and would be impacted further in their territory by a project such as this. There's been no permission sought, no consultations had and all this damage done within their territory. It's just had a huge cultural impact on them and further perpetrates the effect of just simply another territorial removal and done in a much different way. These are subsistence and in some cases ceremonial pieces of the territory that are being impacted. The Churchill Falls generating station as an example before that area was flooded, it provided subsistence to those people in an area where they actually buried their dead and to hear stories of watching the erosion and the bones floating away and those things are extremely sad and obviously again cannot happen. Reservoirs were created in their territory as well encompassing over 2,500 square miles. So there are costs well beyond money to these projects and the entire people's way of life and culture are impacted, not to mention the fish and wildlife impacts, the habitat, all of those things. And before you know it, when you're starting to talk about burial grounds and all those other things, you basically have an entire cultural identity stripped from people and as was mentioned in the video, there's some pretty serious words to call that and genocide is certainly one of them. And I will just close by saying that the Penobscot Nation is really no stranger to the impacts when powers side with industrial interests over the interests of people. We've watched as industry has polluted our waters to a point where even today we're under a fish consumption rule. Pregnant women for example are advised not to consume any fish that come out of the river and for rivering people with such a cultural tie to our namesake river, again this is not just about fishing, it's about protecting the cultural identity of a people, making sure that our children can grow up to be who they are and that's Penobscot. So we stand in solidarity with all of you and condemn in this project, we call them the state of Maine to pull away from this project, let the people have a voice on this project and also consult with the inherent sovereign nations in this state as well as in Canada to not only seek their input but seek their permission within their own territory to be destroyed. And so I want to thank you all again for being here and for allowing me to participate. It's been an honor to do so, thank you very much. Thank you Chief Francis. Next is Chairlady Melissa Ferretti of the Herring Pond Wampanoag tribe of Plymouth, Massachusetts. I said in my own language is good morning, my name is Melissa Ferretti, I am from the Herring Pond Wampanoag of Plymouth. I am the current elected chairwoman of the Herring Pond tribe and I'm here today because it breaks my heart to think about and to see these videos and what's happening to the Penobscot and the inner nations as a tribe who's been dispossessed of all about seven acres of our homeland. So I'm here today to speak out for these communities. So today our tribal community continues to the work of our ancestors, protecting land and water for our youth and for our future generations. As I speak to you today, Indigenous people and tribal communities throughout North America remain on the front line of efforts to address climate change and to oppose projects that will be destructive to the natural world, our Mother Earth. In my work as tribal chairwoman, I am inspired by the many Indigenous activists, educators and leaders who are bringing broader public attention to environmental justice issues. The homeland of tribal nations in the U.S. are among those 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, etc. The Herring Pond Wampanoag tribe knows this because we have been at the ground zero of colonial resource extraction for over 400 years. As I know very well, Indigenous people in New England are often overlooked or ignored with respect to matters of energy and resource development. Yet, at the same time, as a tribe whose ancestral homeland along with the forests, the fish and other wildlife and Plymouth was used by the pilgrims to serve their interests as colonists, we know that we and our history as a tribe are directly connected to the decisions that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts makes about projects such as this transmission corridor proposed by Central Maine Power Company and Hydrocoback. We know that any environmental justice and threats to community well-being faced by the Penobscot and Innu Nation or faced by any other Indigenous communities whose homelands and sacred places are ravaged by dams flooding transmission corridors or pipelines, our environmental injustices and threats to the well-being that we may also face in the future. For our tribe and for all tribal nations, our self-determination as people depends on fulfilling our responsibility to protect our youth, elders and all of our relatives, human and non-human. As you may know, the Herring Pond Wampanoag tribe has issued a statement of solidarity and we are proud to stand with our brothers and sisters of the Penobscot Innu Nations and all Indigenous communities in asserting our right to protect ourselves and our relations against environmental destruction, including the proposed hydroelectric projects that will directly impact the human rights of First Nations and tribal communities in the U.S. and Canada. In that spirit of solidarity, we call upon you and others to acknowledge and adhere to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which was endorsed by the U.S. Department, State Department in 2010. We as Indigenous people have an inherent human right. Article 32, number 32, which states Indigenous people have a right to good faith consultation and cooperation prior to the approval of any project affecting their land, territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources. To us, land, water and all of the wildlife with whom we coexist are alive and sacred. The land doesn't belong to us, we belong to it. Thank you. Well, thank you, Chair Lady Ferretti. Next is John Gonzales from the Standing Bear Network. Thank you. Time to say Nina Kenipuit-Wampuske-Mikosy-Mikwanapio. Many blessings. Thank you for sharing this space with me, allowing me to share this space with you guys today. Look, our rivers are dying. Our people are dying. Our moose, our sturgeon, our wildlife cannot keep up with the fluctuation of these waters. We have the highest incidences of so many ailments, diabetes, heart disease, teen suicide. Our communities are impoverished right now as a direct result of hydro. And many of what many of our people are saying now is that hydro has really taken over where the Indian Act and residential schools left off. And I would like to, you know, capitalize on what Melissa said. And a nation is sovereign, only in so much as we can feed our own people. How will we feed our people while Hydro-Quebec and Manitoba Hydro continue to contribute to the cultural genocide of Indigenous people by way of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People? We have both Canada and the United States have a Truth and Reconciliation obligation to Indigenous people by way of UNDRIP. And what we see right now going on is we see UNDRIP being implemented in what is essentially a termination framework. And that's what has to stop. Okay, we have to acknowledge what is going on that these, that the devastating effects on the land is akin to the tar sands or the mining operations that are occurring all over Canada. So we're fighting these hydro dams. We're fighting these corridors. We're fighting, you know, the Champlain Hudson Power Express, which is designated to provide energy to those people in New York and also the New England Clean Energy Connect. We keep using these words like clean and green to describe, you know, what is essentially devastating to Indigenous communities. This is not going to bring you to net zero. You know, this is, you know, hydro dams have some of the highest levels of CO2 and methane. You know, methane, everybody knows about methane. It's the primary component of natural gas. And it's up to 86 times the greenhouse effect is CO2. And this is what's being released in these huge reservoirs behind these dams. This is what occurs as a result of the decomposition of organic material. And a 2016 Harvard study reported that the romaine four dam will really some of the highest levels of methylmercury poisoning. So that's a dangerous neurotoxin. I think what we need to do is we need to get away from these false solutions. Hydro is not clean. Hydro is not green. It is contributing to the cultural genocide of Indigenous people. And, you know, we implore the Coalition of Northeastern Governors and our Eastern Premiers as you lead us into our energy future, you know, to acknowledge that, you know, these things are devastating. And that if you were a consumer here in the United States benefiting from hydroelectricity, every time you flip that switch, you are in fact contributing to the cultural genocide of Indigenous people. So many blessings to all my relations in these heavily impacted communities. And, you know, once again, I hope that our political leaders will understand the urgency in these matters and that we will continue to live up and open up means of implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Thank you. Thank you, John. I want to that wraps up our speakers. I want to thank all of you who spoke today for the stories you've shared and the hard work you've been doing over many years to fight Canadian Megadam Hydro Sierra Club is proud and humbled to stand with you. We requested the opportunity to present to the Governors and the Eastern Canadian Premiers as part of their conference and we're not given that opportunity. So we will, this is why we're sharing this information today. It needs to get out. As the New England States aimed to meet their climate clean energy goals, the Sierra Club urges the Governors in each state to reject Canadian Megadam Hydro and inquire local clean energy instead. The main chapter is actively opposing the proposed NECC transmission line. The main chapter is hosting two upcoming webinars. I will drop the link into the chat if folks want to continue this conversation and learn more. The Vermont chapter opposes the transmission corridor to be buried under Lake Champlain. New York, the Atlantic chapter is ensuring contracting for clean renewable energy that actually delivers jobs and economic benefits to communities in New York. So there's a lot happening in all of the states and that the Sierra Club is involved in. So that wraps our remarks. I would like to invite questions starting with the members of the press who have joined us today and you can use the chat function or you can raise a hand to be called on. Do you have the hand raising function? I'm not sure we do. Or unmute yourself and please announce yourself and your question. Starting with the press please. Hi, I can. Is this Rick? Yeah, this is Rick. Hey, quick quick. Rick, could you identify yourself and Rick Carlin, Times Union in Albany, New York. We're interested in the Hydro Express, the Hudson Express project that's been proposed. What sort of secret negotiations are going on that you know about between the Cuomo administration and Blackstone? Meg? He's or I'd be happy to answer that. Well, the New York City Mayor's Office does not have a transparent process for procuring renewable energy. That's been a very big concern of ours as well as many other environmental and social justice groups in New York City. So that's for sure. And we have therefore no way to know what kind of negotiations are going on, except that we do know that Blackstone Group, TDI, Champlain Hudson Power Express is actively pursuing this project. So there apparently must be negotiations going on behind the scenes. And Governor Cuomo has not provided any transparency whatsoever with regard to this. TDI Blackstone went out for RFPs in August using Brattle Group to try to get bidders for their projects. They will not disclose what kind of response they've gotten to that request for bids for Chippie. So there are clearly, it's only logical to conclude that there are negotiations going on, that this is behind closed doors and this is secret. It's going on in New York City. The New York City Mayor's Office has not provided any information whatsoever despite our request to update us as to what's going on in New York and similarly on the state level. So that's the grounds for saying that there are secret negotiations. Obviously Blackstone would not be proceeding with this RFP process with Brattle Group if they weren't negotiating with someone to buy the electricity that they intend to put on the Chippie Cable underneath the Hudson River on Lake Champlain Plain to New York City. What is Brattle Group? Right. Brattle Group is a consultant that Blackstone hired. You can go on their website and you can see that in August they put out a request for proposals to try to get bidders to buy the electricity for Chippie and they're managing this Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission corridor from Canada to Astoria Queens. Yeah, I'm sorry. Brattle is BRATTLE. Correct. Yes, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So they want to find a bidder for who would purchase the power? Right. So Blackstone cannot start construction on the Chippie corridor until they have an 80% commitment for the power that's in the permit from the state. So they need to get that contract in place before they can put a shovel in the ground and there's ongoing proceedings in which Blackstone is indicating as recently as two weeks ago to the state that they want to immediately start putting shovels in the ground to build this corridor. Right. Okay. Did they tell the state PSC that? Yes, they did. They asked for a waiver from certain permit conditions so that they could go ahead. Okay. Do you know what the permit conditions were? They related to some of the construction specs. I can send you the information if you'd like. Yes, you can send that. That's fine, yeah. Sure. Sure. I'll give you my, what's your email? Sure. You can send it to thecoordinator.namrat at gmail.com. Okay, great. Thanks, Rick. I hope that answers your question. Yeah. Other members of the press have any questions? Feel free to unmute yourself or indicate in the chat. Hearing none. Getting a little background noise with someone unmuted, but I don't hear a question. So for other attendees, we're happy to answer questions if you have some. And I did promise to drop in the chat the information about the upcoming webinars, which I will do right now. So if you can post your question in the chat, I think there's so many of us, if we unmute all at the same time, it might be we might lose control. I'll start talking once. So please, questions in the chat and we'll take them as they come. So, John Gonzalez, a question for you. Can you talk more about UNDRIP? What is it? And talk a little more about it. Oh, sure. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People provides a framework of minimum standards for the survival dignity and well-being of Indigenous peoples of the world, as well as outlining human rights and fundamental freedoms. So that was adapted by the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, very late in the game. These are all the real colonizing governments, but they're on board now. There are signatories and now, by way of UNDRIP, they really have a truth and reconciliation obligation to Indigenous people. I hope that answered the question. Thank you, John. And Mark, could you put up the last slide as well, because it's got some information where email addresses are and a folder where a lot of background material is if folks want to access that. There is a question here. Can someone talk about methyl mercury? Who would like to do that? Sure, this is Meg. Yep, John, go ahead. Or I can. No, go ahead, Meg. So this is Meg Sheehan. I'm not a scientist, but I do urge everyone to take a quick look at the Harvard study from 2016. So methyl mercury is a naturally occurring organic material that is present in soils and in organic materials. When a reservoir is flooded or those materials are flooded, the methyl mercury is released from the materials and enters into the water column. And by a biological process, it turns into methyl mercury, which is a lethal neurotoxin known to cause many different types of diseases and permanently debilitating conditions. Ever since HydroKobek first flooded its first reservoir 100 years ago, it has been releasing methyl mercury into the environment where it bio accumulates in the food chain and moves up the food chain to the highest mammals that are relied on by indigenous people in the north that includes seals. And it's also present in fish, ducks, and birds that indigenous and remote communities in the North rely on for their food supply. HydroKobek has never conducted an epidemiological study to note the impacts of methyl mercury on people in the North. And in addition, their response to this devastating situation is that they will post advisories on some of the lakes and reservoirs and simply urge people not to eat the food. Methyl mercury can remain in the food supply for decades, some say up to 60 years. So this presents people living in the North with the option of either going hungry and not eating wild foods that they rely on such as fish or taking the risk of methyl mercury poisoning. And this was particularly devastating to the Nazi Edward government when the government of Newfoundland and Labrador had promised after hunger strike by indigenous youth not to flood the reservoir for muskrat falls megadam in 2019 without following the scientific recommendations that organic material be cleared from the reservoir prior to flooding in order to mitigate the methyl mercury that would enter the food supply of the remote indigenous communities in Canada and Labrador on the coast and over the protests and to the great distress of the new Nazi Edward government which had commissioned its own methyl mercury study by Harvard that showed the risk of this poisoning if the reservoir was flooded. The government of now core of Newfoundland and Labrador and now core energy the crown corporation went ahead and flooded the reservoir. So those communities are now facing an increased risk of methyl mercury on top of the existing methyl mercury contamination that has been happening on their river the Grand or Mr. Sheep River in Labrador since Hydro Quebec first flooded that reservoir in the 1970s. So this has been going on for 100 years. There's no way to mitigate this damage and it's an ongoing poisoning of the environment and the food supply of people in the north. Thank you Meg. John did you want to add anything to that? Oh no no I'm good. Okay I read another question here with the upcoming U.S. election is the are the negative impacts of imported Canadian hydropower on the radar? Meg do you want to take that one? Sure I'll take a stab at that. Well certainly you know there are a lot of people hoping that we'll have some form of a Green New Deal here in the U.S. and there are lots of bills being proposed to get us to a green you know a just transition and a clean energy economy but we are actively engaged in making sure that hydropower is not included in any of those Green New Deal type plans to jump start the economy. There are a lot of people who would be pushing that pushing hydro as large dam hydro from Canada as a clean and green renewable option but as John mentioned it's a false solution and there are lots of politicians in the states including the governors that we're addressing today who themselves have been promoting hydro as clean and green and trying to greenwash their political image with Canadian hydro. Thank you I'm trying to monitor the chat here and catch the questions. Can someone talk about the cost of food that is brought in? Carlton's statement about I guess this was in the video about their previous ability to feed all community members and now only 20% are able to do so due to lack of jobs and the high cost of brought in foods. Sure I can talk about that. This is Meg oh okay yeah go ahead and Rita's on the line as well from Pam and Chickama actually might be able to talk about that but yeah go ahead John. Yes of course Rita would be probably the most competent to talk about it. She did offer in the chat so go ahead John and then we'll ask Rita to unmute. Yeah the foods up there are so expensive it's completely out of control and I went and bought a sandwich at a convenience store and paid $10 for bologna and cheese between two slices of bread you know. You know that the hunting, the fishing, the trapping it's a part of the culture and it's a part of the way of life and as I've said earlier a nation really is sovereign only in so much as it can feed its own people and when you see indigenous people struggling so much to feed themselves you know in a climate where we're really supposed to be empowering indigenous people their right to self-determination and free prior and informed consent you know these things are being seriously neglected you know and with that I would defer to Rita of course. Thanks John Rita can you unmute would you like to share with us your perspectives. Let's see I might be able to unmute you let's see if I can. I'll weigh in on that well while you're getting Rita on board there are many scientific and academic studies of food insecurity in the north resulting from hydropower development I know that we have Rebecca Kingdon from Vanusgatan. Is that Rita? I still see you muted. So there's lots of research out there that we could provide you about that and you know it's related to the environmental racism that indigenous communities suffer in Canada as a result of the colonialism and racism that has made this hydropower development possible. Thank you Meg let's see if we get Rita unmuted. If you hover over either your own image you should a blue pop-up box should come up to allow you to unmute or down in the bottom left corner there's also a mute and unmute button there we go. Can you hear me now? Yes okay all right because I've been pushing on these buttons you're having difficulty hearing them anyway our cost the cost of living in northern Manitoba is sky high I'll just give examples of what meat like let's say six pieces of pork chops six to eight pieces of pork chops it's about 22 dollars a jug of milk is about eight dollars a four liter jug of milk is eight dollars an apple juice two liter jug is 13 dollars so those are only examples of what we how how the cost of food is very high here in our community in Pimichikamak which is cross lake Manitoba on the map and our hydro rates are sky high in summertime 200 dollars a month approximately 200 dollars a month the highest and in the winter time it's it's a thousand dollars plus a month in in most cases so when when we talk about paying the price of hydroelectric dams we are the people who are who are paying the price of everything including the our food web the loss of our people while they're hunting chopping and fishing so when you talk about when we talk about cost everything is a cost all aspects of life are cost our mentality our mentality our spiritual our spiritual connection to the land is lost because it's lost because it was it is never ever ever clean and just by looking at it it makes us you know wonder why is it happening to us and we know why because the corporations all across Canada do not care they would rather make money out of this land and and the other thing is you know those corporations the governments even the governments in the United States are affecting taking their children into an environment that will not be acceptable in a future and their children as well will be suffering so when talking about the cost and the price of these these developments it's the lives of the people that are being affected even worse here in Canada because I've I've provided a picture of how many hydro dams are across Canada and I was hoping to bring that on but I can't do it I can't do it from here like you know these corridors to leading into the United States the people will be affected even more so than right now so the cost the price of everything we we pay for it and it hurts I'm telling you it hurts not only the emotions but the environment as a whole in Canada and in the United States okay then thank you Rita um let's see I was just going to read a question and it just got answered in the chat but it it might be a good place as questions are wrapping up to conclude which is for folks on this call that want to join the opposition this question is kind of looking for specifics but maybe y'all can speak both generally and specifically and the question is if I and this is someone from Maine if I were able to write one letter to the press or state officials where would the best place person be to send my letter and what would be the three most important points to make it this time and so that's pretty specific but maybe you can talk generally about advocacy and how people can be involved Meg I point that to you thanks sure um yes we need your help we need more folks to join our effort you can get in touch with us emailing us at coordinator dot namra at gmail go on our facebook page twitter instagram etc um and yes writing to your governors in Maine and massachusetts to let them know that this is a false solution that the regulatory systems in all of the new england states do not count the carbon emissions from hydro kebecs electricity which according to current science is on par with fossil fuels this is not a solution to the climate crisis it's a false solution and hydro kebec is part of the problem and helped create the climate crisis they are fraudulently greenwashing this electricity from an environmental perspective our rivers sequester carbon and destroying more rivers and calling it green is again a false solution so greenwashing is one point the impacts at the other end of the extension cord and kebec and labrador and manitoba thousands of miles away or over a thousand miles away on front line communities that in canada in canada which is one of the world most water rich countries on the planet there are people like rita and her community and people in kebec and in the other provinces who do not have clean drinking water because of the degradation caused by the alteration of these river systems so this is impoverishing indigenous and front line communities and putting the externalities and the cost of this electricity on the backs of front line people this would never be acceptable in the us it violates every principle of climate justice and the third point would be that this is economically nonsense it does not make sense for taxpayers and ratepayers in the us to pay to subsidize these transmission corridors three billion dollars for the new york transmission corridor one billion dollars for the vermont and main corridors this money could easily be spent in the us on local renewable energy generating sources and local jobs thank you so much meg and i'm just going to drop in the chat again um you know depending on what's if you're in the states what state you're in as meg said the circle of chapters also you know hat are working on this issue and have social media and such and again we have two the main chapter is hosting two upcoming webinars to dive deeper into some of these issues and they'd be delighted for folks to join them there um with that i think we've moved our way through our questions um i want to again give a huge thanks um to the speakers here today um this has been incredibly moving um i'm very humbled to be here with you um and to be opposing um large impoundment canadian hydro with you um again here uh if you want to um in addition to attending more webinars um uh access some of the background information it's in the google drive um and you can reach um you can uh go to our web pages uh seara club and namra for more information thank you all have a wonderful day thank you thank you everyone thank you