The Passamaquoddy tidal power proposal was among Maine’s most ambitious twentieth-century infrastructure ideas. It sought to use the exceptional tidal range along the eastern border to generate electricity, but it never secured the durable financial, political, and cross-border support required for construction.
That was Lincoln Smith’s assessment of the long-studied but unfunded hydroelectric scheme in Washington County. Conceived in the early twentieth century, the proposal was estimated in the 1920s to cost between $75 million and $100 million and to generate about three billion kilowatt-hours annually.
A cross-border plan
“Quoddy” was envisioned as a system spanning Passamaquoddy Bay in Canada and Cobscook Bay in Washington County. After initial interest, however, the Canadian government withdrew permission when fishermen protested the potential loss of valuable fishing grounds.
The international geography was central to both the proposal’s promise and its difficulty. Engineering works across connected bays required coordination beyond Maine and the federal government, while fishing communities had direct concerns about changes to productive coastal waters.
Depression-era public works
During the Great Depression, the Public Works Administration sought projects that could create employment. Federal reviews nevertheless concluded that the Quoddy proposal was too expensive and could not compete with lower-cost electricity from steam plants.
With Governor Louis J. Brann championing the idea and Franklin Roosevelt in the White House, several million dollars had been allocated by 1935. The Army Corps of Engineers used those funds for preliminary studies and tests. The project’s prospects dimmed again when Congress eliminated funding in 1936.
The unresolved market question
A major problem was the absence of a clear market for the electricity the project might produce. Advocates advanced several schemes for transmitting power across the country, but inconclusive market studies persuaded few decision-makers.
The debate was therefore not only about whether tidal generation was technically possible. It also concerned the cost of moving electricity to customers, competition from other energy sources, and the extent to which public funds should support an uncertain market.
Politics and later revival attempts
Democrats actively supported the project in Maine and incorporated Quoddy planks into party platforms. Republicans initially declined to do so, although Maine senators, representatives, governors, and many state legislators from across the political landscape supported the proposal. Some regarded it as public spending from which Maine deserved to receive a share.
The Democratic platforms of 1934, 1936, 1938, and 1950 illustrate the project’s political persistence. Beginning with its 1950 platform, the Republican Party also supported the idea and continued to do so through the 1970s.
A brief revival effort in the 1960s connected tidal generation with northern Maine river-power proposals, including Dickey-Lincoln. Once more, political and environmental concerns outweighed the tidal project’s prospects. Suggestions that the site instead host a naval base or another military facility produced no substantial development.