BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 10, 2021
The Clean Energy Corridor was carefully reviewed by state and federal regulators, and received all the necessary approvals to begin construction. If passed, the referendum to stop this project could also create permanent barriers to other clean energy projects. What is unusual here is the attempt to write new laws, to retroactively block projects that have undergone exhaustive review, and even to block them after construction has commenced. Not one word of the bill helps guide our regulators in determining which projects will serve the public interest in the future, and which will not. The bill removes permitting decisions from the filter of an impartial process, placing them squarely in the partisan political arena of the state Legislature. ~ Richard Anderson, former Maine Conservation commissioner and Maine Audubon executive director; Richard Barringer former Maine Conservation commissioner and State Planning Office director