After taking the bar exam, I decided the best thing to do was head north for a multi-day wilderness trip on the West Magpie River. The Magpie flows through Québec’s Côte-Nord region a couple drainages away from the Romaine and Petit Mecatina rivers. For the majority of the trip, we remained many (sometimes hundreds) of miles from any semblance of civilization. The only way to get there is by floatplane.

After five days, countless rapids, and many miles of flatwater, I had a new appreciation for the Côte-Nord region and one of the last truly wild places left in the East. The Magpie, Romaine, and Petit Mecatina are all either being dammed or have the potential to be dammed. Some of our friends had run the Romaine a few weeks earlier and described it as “not a wilderness trip.” Hydro-Québec’s Romaine Complex of dams has essentially devastated the river. There is already one dam at the very end of the Magpie, and the river is listed on Hydro-Québec’s 2009-2013 strategic plan as a potential dam site. The Petit Mecatina is listed as well.

The situation in Québec, in general, presents an important set of choices. Hydropower is generally considered “renewable” and a lower-carbon source of electricity than fossil fuels, especially at existing dams that have been in place for many years. There is a reasonable argument for transmitting more hydropower from the far North to southern Québec and New England, instead of getting our energy from sources like coal fired power plants or Vermont Yankee—our aging and polluting nuclear power facility. But there is also a compelling case that Québec should preserve some of the last, best wilderness areas in the world by curtailing its aggressive dam-building campaign, which could limit the power available for export to New England. We also need to decide how to bring the power south and whether there are better options than traditional overhead high-voltage lines through beautiful, now-unfragmented rural areas.

What is essential is that, if we partner with Québec to meet our energy needs, we need to do so responsibly, with as little environmental damage as possible. A good place to start is by taking a close look at the carbon emissions that could result from Québec’s ambitious plans, including how the proposed Northern Pass project through New Hampshire may contribute to those emissions. CLF has also partnered with Canadian environmental groups to look into the impacts of hydropower development within Québec’s new northern boreal forest management plan and advocated for improvements in Vermont’s contract with Hydro-Québec.

If we do it right and limit our reliance on fossil fuels and focus on not building new dams, Québec and Vermont could find a way to move toward a cleaner energy future.  If not, there is a lot to lose.