On August 13, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued a judgment regarding a referendum planned for November which would have allowed Maine residents to vote on and end the $1 billion Central Maine Power (CMP) corridor project. In its decision, the Maine Supreme Court ordered a lower court to issue an order for the removal of the question from upcoming election ballots. The decision clears the way for the construction of the controversial New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC), the official name of this energy corridor. The NECEC is an energy-supply line that will run from Quebec in Canada to…
Author: Lakshya Bharadwaj
Lakshya Bharadwaj
Lakshya Bharadwaj graduated from Berea College in May 2019 with majors in Economics and Political Science and a minor in Math. He studied for a Master of Public Administration at Ohio State University for a year, but is currently taking a break and pursuing a Master of Financial Economics at University of Maine beginning in Fall 2020.
Under the “Keep Maine Healthy” program, Governor Janet Mills announced on Monday, June 8, her plan to provide an alternative for the 14-day quarantine rule for visitors to the state. If individuals entering Maine want to avoid quarantine, they can bring in a negative COVID-19 test report obtained from a test conducted no more than 72 hours before they enter. Initially, the Governor had issued an order exempting only Vermont and New Hampshire from these special requirements. On July 1, Governor Mills also exempted visitors from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut from this rule. While citing reasons for this…
On Monday, June 15, Governor Mills’ office released guidelines for town meetings and elections for Phase 2 of the reopening process. Basic measures such as face coverings, special focus on hygiene, and sanitizing common touch surfaces apply to all venues that are reopening after the COVID-19 closure. Additionally, to facilitate town meetings and the upcoming state elections, Governor Mills has signed an executive order. Executive Order 56 clarifies that the gathering limit of a maximum of 50 individuals will be in effect even while organizing town meetings, budget hearings, or other public hearings. This action intends to preserve the right…
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the website MoneyGeek has been analyzing unemployment in state economies by sector and updating information on the number and percentage of jobs lost as new data becomes available. The number of jobs in Maine in the month of February 2020 is a good point of comparison to evaluate the impact of Governor Janet Mills’ lockdown of the state economy. MoneyGeek estimates Maine’s peak COVID-19 unemployment will be about 32 percent, or about 208,000 jobs, reflecting a 170,000 increase from the 30,000 unemployed residents in February. According to the Maine Department of Labor, unemployment reached 10.6 percent…