Opposition turns to Legislature as CMP's $950M transmission project enters a week of hearings

Photo / New England Clean Energy Connect On Friday, Maine Public Utilities Commission staff issued a 162-page Examiners' Report recommending approval of Central Maine Power's 145-mile transmission line New England Clean Energy Connect project. That review focused on public interest and public benefit standards. Reviews this week by Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Maine Land Use Planning Commission will look more closely at environmental and land use issues.

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By James McCarthy

Central Maine Power’s controversial $950 million New England Clean Energy Connect project begins joint public hearings this week before the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Maine Land Use Planning Commission. Meanwhile, at least two bills have been submitted in the Legislature that would, if approved and enacted into law, delay the project and possibly even kill it.

The DEP and LUPC hearings, which are scheduled to run through April 5, will take place on the campus of the University of Maine in Farmington.

On Friday the project was endorsed by the staff of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, which issued a 162-page Examiners’ Report recommending approval by the three-member PUC later this month. Opponents and proponents have until April 8 to file comments or objections to the examiner’s findings and recommendations.

“The commission’s finding that the NECEC meets the public interest and public need standards is based on a careful weighing of the benefits and costs of the NECEC to the ratepayers and residents of the State of Maine,” wrote Examiners Mitchell Tannenbaum and Chris Simpson, who were assisted by Faith Huntington, Christine R. Cook and Denis Bergeron. “As required by Maine statute, these include the effects of the NECEC on economics, reliability, public health and safety, scenic, historic and recreational values, and state renewable energy goals.”

Opponents dismiss Examiners' Report

That conclusion didn’t sit well with Natural Resources Council of Maine and Say NO to NECEC, two groups that have consistently opposed CMP’s 145-mile transmission project extends from the Quebec-Maine border through western Maine to Lewiston, where it will connect with the existing electric grid and deliver 1,200 megawatts of renewable energy generated by Hydro-Quebec to Massachusetts.

"On behalf of the Say NO to NECEC effort, we are disappointed by the recommendation by the PUC's Hearing Examiners,” Sandra Howard, director of the group, said in a written statement sent to Mainebiz. There’s nothing in this report that changes the fact that this transmission corridor is a bad deal for Maine and it’s deeply unpopular. The people of Maine have told the PUC loud and clear that they don’t want the Corridor. In fact, of more than 1,300 comments from Mainers, only 28 support the project. We don’t want permanent damage done to our state so Canada can sell power to Massachusetts. Many thousands of Mainers are hoping right now that the PUC commissioners listen to their voices.”

Howard continued: “We recognize that each of Maine's approval agencies has unique criteria to evaluate the merits of the project and are focused to next week's hearings as part of the DEP and LUPC processes to determine NECEC's impacts to scenic character, existing uses, wildlife habitat, and fisheries. We are also encouraged by the bipartisan support growing in Augusta with four bill proposals associated to defeat the CMP Corridor project."

NRCM Staff Attorney Sue Ely said the Examiners’ Report “fails to adequately address the fundamental problems with the CMP corridor, including our primary concern that no verifiable evidence has been provided by CMP or Hydro-Quebec to prove that their enormous transmission line would actually result in a net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”

“It is important to note that the PUC has not conducted or considered any independent and comprehensive analysis of the CMP corridor’s full impact on global greenhouse gas emissions, including the very real possibility the project is merely a shell game to shift existing hydropower to Massachusetts so Hydro-Quebec can make more money,” she wrote.

Ely continued: “Maine residents deserve to have all the facts on this project. The very limited review that was included in the economic analysis conducted by PUC’s consultant did not fully or accurately account for the full scope of emissions impacts. That’s why NRCM is urging passage of LD 640, which would require an independent, fair, and comprehensive analysis of the CMP corridor’s impact on climate change-causing emissions.

“What has become undeniably clear is that Maine people don’t support the CMP corridor and opposition, especially in western Maine, continues to grow. Eleven towns in the region and the Franklin County Commissioners have already opposed or rescinded their support for the project. The PUC has received more than 1,300 public comments urging the Commission to reject this project and heard more than 12 hours of public testimony during three days of public hearings. Of the 116 people who testified at the PUC’s public hearings, 99 opposed the project and 17 supported it. Mainers know that the CMP corridor is a bad deal for Maine and the PUC should, too.”

Efforts to block project turn to Legislature

Bangor Daily News reported today that state Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, who is House chairman of the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee and a frequent CMP critic, had introduced an emergency bill that would require every town along the corridor’s path to accept it by public referendum.

A separate bill, introduced by state Sen. Brownie Carson, D-Harpswell, the former executive director of NRCM, would require the DEP to “issue a report on the total net effect on greenhouse gas emissions from the New England Clean Energy Connect project as proposed by Central Maine Power Company. The department shall submit the report to the Legislature, make the report available to the public and provide a copy of the report to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities by June 1, 2019.”

Carson’s bill, like Berry’s, is submitted as an emergency bill. It specifies DEP “may not issue a permit for the project without taking into account the results of the department's review” of NECEC’s total net effect on greenhouse gas emission.