CMP corridor opponents deliver 75K signatures to Augusta

Opponents of the $1 billion electricity transmission corridor Central Maine Power Co. wants to build through western Maine on Monday completed a citizens petition that may let voters decide whether to revoke the project’s approval.

The opposition group, No CMP Corridor, delivered the petition with an estimated 75,000 signatures to Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap’s office in Augusta.

About 63,000 signatures of registered Maine voters are required to launch a citizen’s referendum. If the signatures are certified by Dunlap’s office and approved by the state Legislature, the referendum will appear on the Nov. 3 election ballot.

No CMP Corridor is hoping to block CMP’s 145-mile New England Clean Energy Connect transmission corridor, which would deliver 1,200 megawatts of renewable energy generated by Hydro-Quebec to Massachusetts. The project received a “certificate of public convenience and necessity” from the Maine Public Utilities Commission in April 2019.

The group began the petition process in September, and said Monday that it collected signatures in over 400 Maine communities, from Madawaska to Kittery.

Tom Saviello, co-chair of No CMP Corridor said in a news release, "The long hours our volunteers spent collecting signatures in the dead of winter has paid off. Because of them, we no longer have to sit back while unelected bureaucrats call the shots on this billion-dollar project. This November, the people of Maine will have the opportunity to say 'No' to this terrible project."

Dunlap’s office confirmed that an estimated 17,000 petition forms were delivered to the Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions on Monday. The office has 30 days to certify the forms and determine if the threshold of registered voters’ signatures has been met.

As No CMP Corridor held a rally outside the Statehouse to celebrate the petition, Gov. Janet Mills was holding an afternoon press conference on the state’s supplemental budget. Mills had no comment on the petition when asked about it, and merely said, "We've been busy working on the budget.”