BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 16, 2021
The federal government will have more control over large electric grid expansions under a little-noticed portion of the sweeping infrastructure law, potentially letting it override state decisions on large projects such as Maine’s stalled hydropower corridor. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden in November gives the federal government more power to identify where new clean-energy corridors are needed in the “national interest” to expand grids and reduce transmission congestion. It is not clear how or if it will affect the $1 billion New England Clean Energy Connect project that voters rejected in a November referendum.