Massachusetts Events Cover Impacts of Canadian Hydropower On Environment, Communities

BOSTON--Over the past two days, the North American Megadam Resistance Alliance with the Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter, 350 Central Massachusetts and Worcester State University Department of Earth, Environment and Physics hosted Indigenous community members and allies from Canada at various forums addressing the true impacts of Canadian hydropower on local people and the environment. Multiple speakers presented information about the negative impacts of over 100 years of Canadian hydropower development at at time when Massachusetts has agreed to buy an additional 1,200 megawatts of power from Hydro-Quebec to be imported via the Central Maine Power transmission corridor.  

Currently, the Canadian hydropower industry is promoting its power as renewable, clean and green when it has been known to cause extreme damage to the local ecosystem.

The events are part of a ten day speakers tour from Maine to Massachusetts raising awareness around the four transmission corridors proposed to import Canadian hydropower from over 1,000 miles away.

Spokespeople for the Labrador Land Protectors, National American Megadams Resistance Alliance and the Sierra Club had the following to say: 

“As Inuit, my people have relied on seal as an essential part of our traditional diets for millenia. Seals nourish our bodies, and our spirits,” Amy Norman, Labrador Land Protectors said. But methylmercury contamination caused by hydro dams in our territory has poisoned our food webs, meaning we can no longer sustain ourselves, plunging us further into food insecurity and severing our connections to the land and waters, as well as our culture. I’m here to spread the word on how these large dams devastate indigenous communities, and to highlight the injustices faced by my people. Climate solutions cannot come at the expense of the people most affected by the climate crisis.”

“One-third of Hydro-Quebec’s dams are on stolen Indigenous lands in Canada. Consumers in Massachusetts are already complicit in the cultural genocide and environmental destruction caused by the industral-scale hydropower development across Quebec Province and in Labrador. The Central Maine Power corridor through Maine will bring more of this dirty energy to the state,” Meg Sheehan, North American Megadam Resistance Alliance coordinator said. “Supporting Canadian hydropower is a serious flaw in the Commonwealth’s energy policy and cannot deliver the promise of greenhouse gas reductions.”

“Governor Baker claims he’s a leader on environmental issues, but supporting Canadian hydro is nothing short of contradictory,” Deb Pasternak, Director at the Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter said. “Not only do megadams destroy the land, water and surrounding communities, it’s importing power that we could be producing right here in the state through green, clean jobs.”