PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 23, 2021
Three Maine environmental groups want a pair of federal agencies to suspend the permits they issued for the New England Clean Energy Connect project that voters rejected this month. On Monday, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Sierra Club and the Appalachian Mountain Club wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Energy asking that permits issued for the 145-mile transmission corridor through western Maine be suspended or otherwise stayed. The letter pointed out that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection last week suspended its construction license for the project after Maine voters on Nov. 2 passed a referendum to block the corridor that would be used to transmit power from hydroelectric dams in Quebec to the New England grid for customers in Massachusetts.