COVID concerns to delay state environmental board review of NECEC permit appeals
May 16—A much-anticipated meeting to review appeals to a conditional permit to build the New England Clean Energy Connect power line was unexpectedly postponed on Monday.
Half the Maine Board of Environmental Protection's members, including the chair, have either tested positive for COVID-19 or had direct exposure, according to a statement sent Monday by the board. The seven-member citizen board hears appeals of environmental licenses, among other duties.
The meeting was scheduled to take place Tuesday and Wednesday. It will be rescheduled to a later date, the board said, possibly in late June.
But documents assembled for the long-delayed meeting also contained new information: The staff of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which advises the BEP, largely rejected the arguments made by opponents regarding impacts such as scenic and recreational uses, soil erosion, wildlife and wetland habitat.
The staff also suggested there's no need for a public hearing on the appeals.
The postponement comes a week after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments on the legality of a new law meant to hobble the project, as well as a challenge to a lease NECEC obtained across public lands. Rulings are expected early this summer.
Project opponents on Monday downplayed the importance of both developments. They said the upcoming court rulings dilute the impact of the BEP process, which has been moving slowly since 2020.
"That whole meeting was a colossal waste of time," said Tom Saviello, the lead petitioner for the Question 1 anti-corridor campaign that led to the new law last November. "At this point it doesn't matter, because the court is going to decide whether the project goes forward or not."
An attorney representing residents opposed to the project, organized in the case as West Forks Plantation, cautioned that the recommendation came from the DEP staff before the board had done its own independent review or decided whether to hold hearings on any of the appeals.
"This is far from a final decision and order from the board," said attorney Elizabeth Boepple. "We fully expect that reason will prevail when the board takes this up. We believe the board will understand the necessity to hold public hearings, particularly in light of the already cut corridor and the more than likely outcome that at least a portion of (it) will never become operational."
At a minimum, Boepple said, a decommissioning and restoration plan must be reviewed, assessed and approved.
Monday's postponement was the latest twist in a process that began in 2017, when Central Maine Power, which along with NECEC Transmission is a subsidiary of Avangrid Inc., first proposed the NECEC project. It emerged as a quick pivot by Massachusetts officials and electric utilities, after a similar venture in New Hampshire was blocked by state opposition.
Since then, the project has turned into Maine's most contentious environmental flashpoint in decades. Years of government review, citizen input, campaigns and negotiations have seemed only to harden public opinion. There's little agreement on what impact the transmission corridor — which already is partially built but on hold per DEP order — would have on the region's renewable energy and climate change goals, electric rates, Maine's prized forestlands and future power ventures.
The $1 billion NECEC project is designed to bring 1,200 megawatts of power from Hydro-Quebec in Canada to the New England electric grid over a 145-mile route and through a converter station in Lewiston. The project is being built to help Massachusetts meet its clean energy and climate goals and is being paid for by that state's electricity customers. It would have the capacity to power roughly a million homes.
To satisfy contracts with Massachusetts utilities, NECEC is under intense pressure to complete the project by August 2024. But that timetable was put at risk after nearly 60 percent of voters rejected the NECEC project through a ballot initiative last November.
This story will be updated.
