The state holds another hearing Monday on the future of Central Maine Power’s embattled transmission corridor through Western Maine, as the developer says it will heed calls to temporarily pause construction after the Nov. 2 referendum vote against the project.
An attorney for the New England Clean Energy Connect project wrote to the state late Friday, saying officials would agree to Gov. Janet Mills’ request to voluntarily stop work on the corridor while regulatory and court decisions on the implications of the referendum are ongoing.
The letter argues that this pause means the state should ease up on its sense of urgency around Monday’s hearing, since construction won’t be able to resume at least until a Superior Court decision on CMP’s suit for a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the referendum.
In the letter, CMP and NECEC officials wrote that they expect that decision before the end of the year, and in a footnote, said that the project can survive that kind of “temporary cessation.”
Concerned about the outcome of Monday’s state Department of Environmental Protection hearing, officials from CMP and NECEC stated in the letter that “a longer interruption of construction during the lawsuit challenging the initiative creates a grave risk to the ultimate viability of the project and the realization of the many benefits to Maine that the project and its related stipulation provide, and will cause irreparable harm.”
The law that voters approved Nov. 2 bans “high-impact” power lines from the Upper Kennebec region and is written to apply retroactively to the CMP project. It also requires two-thirds legislative approval for most other similar projects elsewhere in the state going forward.
The state vowed to try and follow public calls for a speedy decision after Monday’s hearing — “like, at midnight before the 23rd,” said former lawmaker Tom Saviello, a leading corridor opponent who’s mulling a run for governor, at a rally on the issue in Augusta last week.
Monday’s hearing will focus on whether the referendum constitutes a “substantial change” to circumstances surrounding a one-mile public lands lease for the project. The DEP held a similar hearing in October, before the referendum vote, about an August Superior Court decision that found the Bureau of Public Lands erred in how it approved that lease, near West Forks.
The state Supreme Court is set to hear an appeal of that ruling but had only said CMP should stop construction in the contested area. Opponents of the project want it scuttled entirely, and for CMP to restore the area where trees have already been cleared for the power line.
The scope of Monday’s DEP hearing also includes potential alternate routes for the project, whether any of them are viable in light of the referendum, and other ways the vote could affect the project. DEP officials and lawmakers will also review the status of the appeal and CMP’s timeline for construction.
The developer’s letter says officials expect to discuss their request to “put the instant proceeding back on a routine track, now that the urgency of the hearing has been allayed” before Monday’s hearing begins at 9 a.m.
The hearing will be livestreamed, with a public-comment portion scheduled to open at 5:30 p.m. People wishing to speak virtually can register during the day and may be permitted to speak without pre-registering if time allows.
Spectrum News Maine reporter Susan Cover contributed reporting to this story.