KENNEBEC JOURNAL • April 27, 2023
In the end, it took a civil jury trial — a procedure so unusual many lawyers and even judges were unfamiliar with it — to resolve what happens with the extraordinarily entangled power line to Canada: It will be built. Last week’s unanimous conclusion from nine ordinary Maine citizens in effect reversed the 59% majority of voters who decided, in a 2021 referendum, that the project should be shut down. Maine institutions failed us in this drawn-out and largely unnecessary saga. The Natural Resources Council of Maine went to work to convince Mainers that such a corridor amounted to sacrilege. CMP did a terrible job defending the project. The news media presented the battle as “environment vs. big utility.” The Supreme Judicial Court’s original ruling essentially validated the vested rights arguments, but it remanded the case, producing seven months of delay and facilitating another whopping electric rate increase. Going forward, we need to collectively make better decisions about creating a survivable future. ~ Douglas Rooks