CMP will keep access to corridor route if it wins court battles
The developers of a $1 billion hydropower corridor running from the Canadian border through western Maine will be able to keep access to a key permit if they prevail in two court challenges.
The permit over public lands was first granted by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to the New England Clean Energy Connect project but suspended by that organization last November. But the Board of Environmental Protection, tasked with enforcing laws, on Thursday denied appeals to the permit after two days of testimony.
A judge last year ruled the state had no authority to grant leases on public land in rural Somerset County. The area in question covers a little less than one mile of the proposed 145-mile corridor, which is being led by Central Maine Power Co. and Hydro-Quebec.
Today’s ruling carried two caveats. One is that the amount of conservation land to be committed for the project needed to be increased from 42,000 acres to 50,000 acres. The second involves an ongoing court case challenging a referendum that stopped construction of the corridor.
If Maine’s high court ultimately rules the referendum unconstitutional, then construction would have to resume within two years for the permit to remain valid.
The board’s decision does nothing to immediately revive the project, which has been paused since last November after the state suspended the site permit at the heart of this week’s long-delayed hearing on an appeal dating back to 2020. The fate of the project still rests on the high court’s decisions on cases around the constitutionality of the vote and public land leases.
The board also said there was no need for a public hearing on the permit. Opponents to the corridor responded quickly, saying they were disappointed in that decision.
Former state Sen. Tom Saviello, a leader of the anti-corridor campaign, said the board “did not look at what has actually happened” in the two years after the permit was issued and “ignored the new laws.”
Please see full article at:
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2022/07/21/business/cmp-will-keep-a...
Also, please see Dan McKay's post on this at:
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/state-environmental-bo...
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Comment
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Comment by Dan McKay on July 22, 2022 at 1:52pm
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I would hope at the very least that the court remand this back to the legislature who have, by now, heard the anguish and anger from people crushed with high electric bills, destined to go higher.
Solar, Wind and Biden have taken a huge bite out of our, historically, more than adequate supply of generated electricity. As supply lessens, prices soar.
1200 megawatts flowing into the Maine grid sure would be welcomed now.
Saviello is a weaselly punk.
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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