KENNEBEC JOURNAL • October5, 2022
With powerful hurricanes, relentless flooding in some regions, drought in others, you’d think we’d be doing everything possible to mitigate climate change. But we aren’t. In late August, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court handed down a puzzling ruling that essentially found unconstitutional the referendum that shut down the New England Clean Energy Connect line in November 2021, but didn’t quite say that. Instead, it remanded the issue of “vested rights” for the builder back to the Business Court for further fact-finding. It will take at least two years even to find out if the original referendum was legitimate. The NECEC project is the single fastest, largest way to do something about global warming in New England. The people and environment of Maine, New England — and the planet, for that matter — are the losers. It will only be much later that we know how large a loss that is. ~ Douglas Rooks