PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 15, 2021
The battle over a stalled New England power corridor reached another pivotal point Wednesday, when Avangrid Networks urged a Maine judge to block a law passed by voters in November because it was designed with only one purpose – to kill the $1 billion project. A lawyer for Avangrid and its NECEC Transmission LLC affiliate said the new statute is an illegal, retroactive attempt to deprive the company of “vested rights,” a legal doctrine meaning that it had valid permits to start construction on the New England Clean Energy Connect corridor. But a lawyer for the Natural Resources Council of Maine and six individual intervenors countered that Avangrid failed to obtain those vested rights because it ignored several ongoing challenges to the NECEC permits when it chose to start clearing land and erecting towers last winter.