MAINE PUBLIC • May 19, 2023
After millions of dollars spent on legal and electoral tussles, construction of the $1 billion transmission corridor halted by Maine voters two years ago ispoised to move forward. Opponents of the project are now focusing on an outstanding federal permitting dispute while also trying to reignite a debate over the corridor’s climate change benefits and the generation capacity of its electricity supplier, Hydro-Quebec. Taken together, the developments highlight how the 145-mile transmission line known as the New England Clean Energy Connect, or NECEC, continues to be contentious, even after bruising and costly battles in court and the ballot box. And it may also foreshadow protracted legal and political disputes over other major energy projects that some argue are critical to shifting electricity production away from fossil fuels.