Hydro-Quebec stops work on Canadian section of NECEC power line
The provincial utility said it hopes to resume work, and expressed confidence that NECEC would win its legal challenges.
By Tux TurkelStaff Writer
Provincial utility Hydro-Quebec has stopped construction on the Canadian section of a transmission corridor that would hook up to the now-stalled $1 billion New England Clean Energy Connect project in Maine.
The utility had started work on the 60-mile Appalaches-Maine interconnection from a substation near Thetford Mines on a route headed to the Quebec-Maine border at Beattie Township. It planned to string a 320-kilovolt line and build an AC-to-DC converter station, at a total cost of $475 million. The project was scheduled for completion in 2023.
Hydro-Quebec said it has finished 70 percent of the right-of-way clearing and access roads. On Jan. 19, it notified the Canada Energy Regulator, the federal agency that permits cross-border energy ventures, that construction was being suspended.
“Hydro-Quebec hopes to be able to resume construction work on the interconnection line project for Appalaches-Maine and remains convinced of the value, merits and importance of the project,” the utility told the Energy Regulator in a letter. “We and our partner maintain that the referendum is unconstitutional and are committed to the legal challenge to the referendum initiative. We are convinced that this project remains essential to New England’s decarbonization efforts.”
The utility also said it would secure the construction site over the next few weeks.
“Environmental monitoring of the premises will also be deployed throughout the suspension period,” it added.
NECEC PROJECT ON HOLD
News of the pause was reported Tuesday in La Presse, a French-language digital newspaper based in Montreal.
Hydro-Quebec’s action means that virtually all work to forge a new energy connection between the province and New England is on hold. The company said it was continuing with some engineering work as well as construction at the converter station.
Responding to questions from the Portland Press Herald on Wednesday, a Hydro-Quebec spokeswoman said the company had slowed work in mid-December to reflect the pause in Maine triggered by a Superior Court ruling.
“Hydro-Quebec believes that its partner in Maine will succeed in its legal challenge of the law that put at risk the completion of the NECEC project,” Caroline Des Rosiers said in a statement. “Work will resume as soon as possible after the adjudication on the issues raised in the case.”
In an apparent reference to the need to call up oil-fired power plants in New England to supplement natural gas generation this month, Des Rosiers noted that NECEC could provide the region with “a clean, reliable and cost-competitive energy resource, every hour of the year, including during periods of high electricity consumption, especially relevant with the cold temperatures we are seeing this winter.”
In Maine, NECEC voluntarily stopped work on Nov. 19 at the urging of Gov. Janet Mills following the Nov. 2 ballot initiative in which voters overwhelmingly endorsed a law aimed at killing the project. On Nov. 23, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection ruled that the new law created a change of condition in NECEC’s permit and ordered the project shut down until court challenges are resolved. Per the DEP’s order, crews stabilized the corridor and related construction sites in December to limit erosion over the winter.
NECEC began clearing land last January. It has spent more than $450 million and cleared 124 miles of the 145-mile corridor and erected roughly 120 steel towers. More than 600 workers were engaged with the project when construction was shut down.
NECEC and Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power, are now appealing the constitutionality of the new law and are facing other legal challenges in court and before regulatory agencies.
OTHER ROUTES POSSIBLE
Completion of the power line is a top priority for Hydro-Quebec, which calls itself North America’s leading provider of clean energy. The utility is seeking to increase its export capacity of hydroelectric power to New England and has estimated potential earnings of roughly $10 billion over a 20-year contract with Massachusetts power companies.
Hydro-Quebec also has financially supported NECEC’s struggle in Maine. A subsidiary called H.Q. Energy Services contributed more than $20 million to fight last November’s ballot initiative. The subsidiary also recently filed a “friend of the court” brief in a challenge at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court regarding NECEC’s contested lease across public lands.
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Residential construction permits in Portland down 82% since Green New Deal
The Green New Deal, which mandates that certain new residential construction in Portland meet affordability requirements, has led to a dampening of development in the year since its passage.
In 2020, prior to the new inclusionary zoning provision, 756 residential units were put on the planning books. In the roughly one year since passing the provision in November 2020, only 139 units had been put on the books — a decrease of 81.6%, according to a study by the Boulos Co.
The three projects that are on the books in Portland include a 48-unit development called Winchester Woods in Portland’s East Deering neighborhood, as well as a 81-unit project at 45 Forest Ave. and a 10-unit development at 392 St. John St.
The Green New Deal requires that in developments of 10 or more units, 25% of those units must be affordable to people making 80% of the area median income. The rule applies to new construction, substantial rehab, adaptive reuse or conversion from nonresidential to residential use.
The previous rule required 10% of new units to be workforce units and defined workforce units as affordable for households that earn 100% of the area median income.
“The reason it was voted on was a very legitimate housing problem. Housing is a big issue. Voters hoped it would increase the amount of affordable housing but it ultimately led to fewer units altogether,” John Finegan, an associate with the Boulos Co., told Mainebiz.
Traditional workforce housing, which often uses subsidies and public financing, will continue to be developed unhindered by the new ordinance.
Developers also can choose to pay $150,000 per workforce unit to the city as an alternative to providing workforce units, known as a fee-in-lieu. As a result, luxury units can be more profitable because the $150,000 fee-in-lieu remains flat, regardless of the quality or sale value of the unit, the Boulos report said.
Yarmouth-based developer Kevin O’Rourke, who is building Winchester Woods, previously told Mainebiz that two factors helped his project to be possible: the acquisition of the land at a low price and the development under a Planned Residential Unit Development provision, which gave him a 25% density bonus.
“The new [inclusionary zoning] provisions have not stopped new multifamily development in its tracks, but they have made it very difficult, and they are having a noticeable negative impact on the housing being built in Portland, a city hungry for housing,” the Boulos report said.
“These developments take years. People will continue to see development going on, big cranes going up because those projects were already on the books before the referendum passed, but by 2023, 2024 there will be a noticeable decrease in development,” Finegan said. “Development will stop. There’s a two- to four-year pipeline in development projects and they’re already starting to dry up.”
Higher construction costs and labor costs also play a role, Finegan said.
Under the new rules, the maximum affordable rent must include electricity, heat, hot water, cooking energy, sewer, water, and trash collection. The current maximum affordable rents for workforce units are $1,189 a month for a studio apartment, $1,398 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,598 for a two-bedroom apartment.
According to the Boulos report, Christine Grimando, director of Portland’s Department of Planning & Urban Development, cited one strategy deployed by developers to skirt the new provision is to reduce the scope of their projects.
“For example, one multifamily project originally slated for 20-plus units is being redesigned as a nine-unit project, just below the threshold that triggers inclusionary zoning,” the Boulos report said. “This trend is resulting in less housing overall and no additional affordable housing being built in Portland. Other developers are actively working with the city, trying to find ways to bring forward housing proposals that can meet the current requirements. Unfortunately, most are finding it difficult to make the projects financially viable.”
“The new requirements will likely reduce the number of both new workforce and market rate housing units in Portland. It is likely we will see an increase in smaller condo and apartment buildings where a larger multifamily might have otherwise been the highest and best use,” the Boulos report said.
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In major reversal, Arizona utility regulators kill 100% clean-energy rules in the state
Three Republican utility regulators have voted down a proposal for 100% carbon-free energy in Arizona that was considered, debated, workshopped and offered for public comment for more than five years. The rules appeared on the verge of passage last year when Jim O’Connor, a Republican member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, and Anna Tovar, a Democratic member, reached a compromise. But O’Connor backtracked Wednesday and voted against that deal, saying state rules were not necessary.
http://www.windaction.org/posts/53147-in-major-reversal-arizona-uti...
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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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