BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 30, 2022
Despite passage of a 2021 referendum aiming to kill the project, the stalled Central Maine Power Co. hydropower corridor is on life support, although one major obstacle was cleared by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday when it upheld a 2020 public land lease given to CMP and its affiliates for the project. But a case over the referendum’s constitutionality is only beginning its path through a lower court that will determine whether CMP and allies had “vested rights” to the project prior to last November. Also, the new governor of Massachusetts has been skeptical of climate benefits of the project and lawmakers there have been examining alternatives, including a wind power line that will connect Aroostook County to the regional grid.