BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 22, 2023
In October 2022, the Maine Public Utilities Commission approved a bid from LS Power Grid Maine (a subsidiary of Missouri-based LS Power), to construct a new 140 to 160 mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line. It had also approved an Aroostook County wind farm (King Pine Wind Maine, LLC, a subsidiary of Boston-based Longroad Energy). On June 13, the Maine Legislature passed LD 924 “to Provide Legislative Approval of the Transmission Project.” We need to make clean energy a reality in Maine but we need to work together for a fair plan. Maine’s “Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program” says the PUC shall give preference to proposals that: “Favor use, where practicable, of existing utility and other rights-of-way.” Are other corridors and rights-of-way available? We stakeholder taxpayers and voters care about what happens in our Maine “backyards” when lawmakers serve it up without asking us first. ~ Carole L. Getchell and her husband own property in Corinth that potentially abuts the proposed transmission line corridor