PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 6, 2022
On Tuesday, roughly seven months after Maine voters endorsed a law aimed at preventing the $1 billion New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line from moving ahead, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to hear conflicting arguments from the project’s supporters and opponents on two key elements. The first issue involves a lower court’s reversal of a state agency’s decision to lease a 1-mile section of public lots near The Forks to Central Maine Power for the NECEC transmission line to cross. The second issue involves attempts by Avangrid Networks, the parent company of CMP and NECEC Transmission LLC, to nullify the effect of last November’s ballot initiative that banned the construction of “high-impact transmission lines” in a portion of western Maine.