A controversial power corridor running through the North Maine Woods is set to be completed and put to use by the end of the year – a goal that has been eight years in the making.
Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power (CMP), has indicated that the corridor will go live at some point in the next few weeks after it has been tested and commissioned, according to WGME.
After years of legal and regulatory battles, the State of Maine has issued the final permit necessary for the corridor to be finalized, as was previously reported by the Bangor Daily News.
Also known as the New England Clean Energy Connect corridor, the new infrastructure is set to bring hydropower from Quebec into Massachusetts.
As part of the agreement that allowed the project to move forward amidst a great deal of controversy, developers agreed to conserve 50,000 acres of land located within the corridor.
It is the approval for this conservation effort that Avangrid received from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection Wednesday.
Although a conservation plan was submitted to the agency several years ago, it was rejected at that the time for being insufficiently detailed.
Under the now-approved plan, public access to the conserved area is guaranteed even beyond the eventual decommissioning of the corridor.
The land will be administered as a working forest conservation easement by the Maine Bureau of Lands and Parks, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Environmentalist groups raised concerns over the company’s proposed strategy for conserving “mature forest,” as they argued that the definition presented in their plan is insufficient and encompasses nearly no area that meets the understanding of “mature” adopted by forest and wildlife ecologists.
Regulators disagreed with this interpretation, however, indicating earlier this week that the proposed plan had enough “conservation value” to meet its standards.
After being rejected by Maine voters at the ballot box in 2021 by a margin of 59 percent, a state court revived the project two years later following an intense legal battle wherein CMP challenged the retroactive nature of the referendum.
The Maine Supreme Court ultimately agreed with the utility’s argument that this represented a due process violation and rolled back the measure.
Another challenge stemmed from an environmental group’s complaint regarding the lease for about a mile’s worth of land for the project, suggesting that the move represented a substantial change in the land’s usage and therefore required approval from two-thirds of the Legislature to move forward.
Again, Justices serving on the Maine Supreme Court sided with the utility and allowed the project to proceed.
Once it goes live, the controversial corridor will reportedly be considered New England’s largest source of renewable energy.
“This achievement is the culmination of years of hard work, collaboration, and perseverance,” Avangrid CEO Jose Antonio Miranda said in a news release Wednesday, as reported by the Portland Press Herald.
“We have secured every permit, met every regulatory requirement, and overcome significant challenges because we believe we must address the urgent need for reliable energy at a time of rising demand,” said Miranda. “Today, we stand ready to deliver on that promise.”
CMP has claimed that the corridor will lower Mainer’s energy costs by a collective $14 million annually, a notable sum that nonetheless pales in comparison to the $150 million in projected savings for Massachusetts ratepayers, who will be the primary recipients of the energy transported through the corridor.
