PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Maine environmental regulators on Friday issued a draft recommendation supporting a $1 billion hydropower transmission project as long as Central Maine Power meets stipulations. But there will be an opportunity for public comments on the proposal before a final vote.
The conditional approval calls for Central Maine Power to make changes to reduce the visual impact over a 53-mile segment to be cut through wilderness in western Maine. Other provisions to mitigate the environmental impact include conservation of another 40,000 acres, $1.8 million for culvert replacement projects and a prohibition on herbicides.
A leader for the project said he’s pleased with the draft recommendation in favor of the New England Clean Energy Connect, which would allow up to 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to reach the regional power grid in Maine.
“The commissioner and staff have reviewed thousands of pages of documents and testimony and determined that, with the draft special conditions, the project fully complies with all environmental standards established by the DEP. We will review the special conditions included in the draft permit and look forward to the final decision,” said Thorn Dickinson, president and CEO of NECEC Transmission LLC.
A spokeswoman for a group that opposes the project said “state agencies that are supposed to keep us safe continue to fail us.”
“Mainers know that the corridor will do lasting, permanent damage to Maine in order to sell Canadian electricity to Massachusetts. It’s simply a bad deal for Maine,” said Sandra Howard from Say No to NECEC.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection will accept written comments on the draft recommendation through March 27 before making a final decision on the project, DEP spokesman David Madore said Friday.
The project was born out of Massachusetts’ green energy goals and Massachusetts ratepayers would fully fund the project. But CMP contends Maine and the region will benefit from lower carbon emissions, reduced fossil fuel usage and stabilized electricity costs.
Critics say the project creates an unacceptable environmental harm and fails to take into account the potential harm to homegrown solar, wind and biomass projects in Maine.
Under the proposal, most of the 145-mile (230-kilometer) transmission line would follow established utility corridors, but a new swath would be cut through 53 miles (85 kilometers) of wilderness in western Maine to the Canadian border on land that the Maine utility owns.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission and the Land Use Planning Commission already approved the project.
But voters could get the final say. Opponents collected enough signatures to the project to a vote on the November ballot.
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This story has been corrected to show that there will be more public comment, but not public hearings, ahead of the final vote.
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