Connections, contradictions and contests of low-carbon electricity: Lessons from Massachusetts' drive for Hydro-Quebec Power

Keywords: electricity, energy transition, hydropower, energy justice
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This paper outlines the just-published Introduction for the 2020/2021 Northeast Geographer special issue, Quebec Hydropower for a green Massachusetts? Connections, contradictions and contests of electricity. The paper situates the reader in the region, starting in Québec, where Hydro-Québec is completing a large four-dam hydropower construction project on the Romaine River, in the territory of the Innu First Nation, a river they call the Unamen Shipu. The electricity must travel hundreds of miles through new transmission lines across the northern woods to connect to southern Quebec and one of the northern New England states, before it can connect to densely populated Massachusetts, the state that is the policy driver and financial source for the much of this construction. The special issue articles show that in Quebec, agreements were signed with Innu bands, enabling construction, but the effects have been a mixed blessing; while in New Hampshire and Maine, major political battles erupted, and a transmission line has not been built. In Massachusetts, policymaking and advocacy focused mainly on decarbonization targets, not these potential distant impacts or negotiations. The political-geographical organization of decision-making across these different spaces is shown to shape renewable energy development and the distribution of benefits, profits, costs, and impacts. From this case study, three theoretically informed themes are drawn out as inherent in the use of large-scale renewable electricity from remote locations as a route to climate mitigation: spatial and material linkages (connections), political economies and political ecologies (contradictions), and divided political geographies (contests).