Utility Tries Insulting its Opposition

This can't end well.

A report in the Maine Times Record says that Central Maine Power (CMP) spokesman John Carroll called the opposition to the New England Clean Energy Connect project "bizarre" and "shameful."

CMP representative John Carroll called the opposition “bizarre” and “shameful,” lamenting  that instead of seeing Hydro-Quebec as a leader in the clean energy movement, “we are immediately suspicious.”
The project would be “a great battery for the Northeast,” he said, adding that this line would help prevent the continued mass spillover of energy that Hydro-Quebec is currently unable to sell. The project is a simple step toward making the region and the nation less dependent on fossil fuels, Carroll argued.

Sigh.

Insulting your entrenched opposition is not, and has never been, a winning tactic.  In fact, name-calling and ad hominem arguments only expand opposition and drive it deeper.  It's even a no-no in most transmission developer "Code of Conduct" documents.  The "Code of Conduct" is a fig leaf used by many developers to assure regulators and elected officials that landowners facing eminent domain for transmission rights-of-way will be treated fairly.

In this iteration, the Code of Conduct states:

Do not suggest that any person should be ashamed of or embarrassed by his or her opposition to the PATH Project or that such opposition is inappropriate.

Name calling is one of the seven common propaganda devices.   It is used to create unacceptable groups who should be dismissed without an examination of the facts.

Apparently there is no code, moral or otherwise, for CMP... nor any tactic too low.  It is truly bizarre that this company appears to simply not care how much of a bully it looks like.  And they seem to believe Maine is a cheap date and its people mere sheep that can be cowed by suggestions that they should be ashamed of themselves.  It is Central Maine Power who should be ashamed.