Maine Supreme Court upholds state-issued lease for major power line project

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that the State of Maine has acted within its constitutional authority in granting a lease to the developers of the 1,200-MW New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line project.

The news was announced on Tuesday by project developer Avangrid Inc (NYSE:AGR), whose subsidiaries NECEC Transmission LLC and Avangrid Networks Inc filed the lawsuit a year ago. By doing so, they challenged a referendum in Maine that sought to block the project.

At the end of August 2022, the Law Court in Maine also ruled that said referendum was unconstitutional.

“For the past three years, despite opposition funding by fossil fuel interests, every regulatory body at the local, state, and federal level has thoroughly reviewed the New England Clean Energy Connect and all agree the NECEC is beneficial for Mainers. We are pleased with today’s ruling and look forward to determining our next steps for this critical project,” commented Scott Mahoney, Senior Vice President – General Counsel at Avangrid.

NECEC is a USD-950-million (EUR 915.6m) project that calls for the construction of a 145-mile transmission line to deliver hydropower from Quebec to the New England energy grid in Lewiston, Maine.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.964)

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