MAINE PUBLIC • November 30, 2023
NextEra Energy’s attempts to derail a transmission corridor through western Maine involved a significant secret donation to the Maine Democratic Party in 2018 as well as the 2019 financing of a group that helped organize a referendum to scuttle the project, according to new documents released by the state’s campaign finance watchdog. The documents provide a more complete picture of the energy giant’s efforts to halt the New England Clean Energy Connect, a $1 billion project that would dump 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower into the regional grid. NextEra, which owns the Seabrook nuclear power plant in N.H., stands to lose tens of millions of dollars every year if the NECEC comes online. It spent $20 million supporting a 2021 referendum aimed at killing the project.