ASSOCIATED PRESS • May 18, 2021
Tree-cutting on a key stretch of a $1 billion hydropower project in western Maine is going to stop almost as soon as it has started to protect the newly born young of a federally protected bat. The New England Clean Energy Connect has a narrow window of only two weeks to begin work on the power line after a federal appeals court gave the green light to proceed last week. Tree removal will have to stop in June and July when the pups of northern long-eared bats are born and cannot yet fly.