MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 31, 2021
Is the outcome of Question 1 “binding”? It’s something many Mainers have been wondering as they contemplate what their vote will mean to the $1 billion New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line project. The short answer is: Not necessarily. Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power and NECEC LLC, will seek to overturn the law if it passes and is enacted. Meanwhile, other legal challenges in court and at regulatory agencies will continue. Avangrid has spent more than $400 million on the project. It has cleared much of the corridor and is erecting steel poles. Materials for completing the project, such as transmission line and insulators, have been received. If the project’s not completed, could it be decommissioned, with all the equipment removed and the forest restored? That would be a stunning and unprecedented outcome,