MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 9, 2022
We learned late last month that the trial in the latest phase of the lawsuit over the stalled hydropower corridor will not take place until April – eight months after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court sent it back to a lower court. The lower court’s decision might take another several months thereafter. In the face of Maine’s growing climate crisis and energy vulnerabilities, this threatens a further unacceptable delay in a sorely needed and time-sensitive project that is due to be operational in August 2024. An environmental legal system put in place largely by Ed Muskie 50 years ago now encourages and rewards defeat-by-delay strategy and tactics that allow corporate malice, in league with environmental purists and local NIMBYists, to make ill-gotten gains at the expense of the greater public good. It is beyond time to stop this destructive playbook. ~ Richard Barringer, emeritus professor at the USM’s Muskie School and a former Maine commissioner of conservation and director of state planning