MAINE PUBLIC • June 30, 2020
The state’s Bureau of Parks and Lands has signed a revised deal with Central Maine Power to lease a public parcel for the utility’s controversial power line through western Maine. It makes some key changes, but opponents say under the state constitution, the lease still needs to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the Legislature. The lease is for a 300-foot-wide, mile-long parcel that CMP wants for its proposed transmission corridor. The original 2014 lease was challenged on constitutional and other grounds in the Legislature this year and in a lawsuit filed by opponents last week.