Maine Supreme Court upholds PUC approval of energy corridor

The state supreme court has rejected a challenge of utility regulators’ approval of a 145-mile power transmission corridor that would serve as a conduit for hydropower from Canada.

NextEra Energy Resources appealed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court after the Public Utilities Commission granted its approval to the $1 billion New England Clean Energy Connect.

In its unanimous ruling, the panel brushed aside NextEra’s complaint that the PUC made a number of errors on its decision.

“The commission followed the proper procedure and there is sufficient evidence in the record to support the findings it made. In short, the commission reasonably interpreted and applied the relevant statutory mandates in arriving at its decision,” the court wrote Tuesday................................

Continue reading here:

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/03/19/maine-supreme-court-upholds-...

and

https://apnews.com/4a6ab4dab1c61f1d3bf42bceded5980e

Court thwarts challenge to regulator’s approval of CMP corridor

Bangor Daily News - Lori Valigra - March 18, 2020
Transmission Maine

Another potential barrier to Central Maine Power Co.’s proposed $1 billion hydropower corridor through western Maine was removed Tuesday when the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled against a challenge to a regulator’s approval of the project.

Another potential barrier to Central Maine Power Co.’s proposed $1 billion hydropower corridor through western Maine was removed Tuesday when the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled against a challenge to a regulator’s approval of the project.

In a case filed last fall, NextEra Energy Resources appealed the certificate of public convenience and necessity that the Maine Public Utilities Commission granted last April for the controversial project.

The project needs a series of regulatory approvals. Last Friday, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection became the latest agency to give preliminary approval to the project.

The controversial hydropower project, which would extend 145 miles from Hydro-Quebec’s dam system at the Canadian border through western Maine to Lewiston, also needs from the Army Corps of Engineers a presidential approval to cross the border and town permits.

Continue reading here:

http://www.windaction.org/posts/51067-court-thwarts-challenge-to-re...

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Comment by Art Brigades on March 20, 2020 at 3:19pm

The opposition to NECEC is often described as "grass roots" but these big business interests (who appealed and failed) are anything but grass roots. They are the source of the millions going to the grass roots anti NECEC campaign. Those grass roots folks could have appealed also, but they did not...they chose to launch a fishy looking referendum instead.

In New England NextEra owns natural gas plants and the Seabrook nuclear plant, which stand to lose millions due to price suppression once NECEC goes online. They have formed an unholy alliance with NRCM and Jerry Paine and his wind lobby, which also suffers harm in a NECEC world. 

Comment by arthur qwenk on March 19, 2020 at 7:44pm

Git er done. 

Dense Fuels rule.

U.S. Sen Angus King

THE UNTOLD STORY OF RECORD HILL WIND

The Untold Story of Record Hill Wind, continued

 

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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