No CMP Corridor

09/02/2022

If you are interested in keeping up with our fight to stop the CMP corridor, please join the Say NO to NECEC Facebook group. Thanks!

12/13/2021

"Recently the CEOs of Avangrid, New England Clean Energy and Central Maine Power sent a letter to Gov. Janet Mills stating their displeasure with her decision to ask that construction cease on the NECEC. I found that letter to be absolutely disrespectful and pompous on Avangrid’s, NECEC’s and CMP’s part. Frankly, they should be ashamed of their continued misconduct.

I was the lead petitioner of this year’s Question 1, a citizen initiative to block CMP’s western Maine corridor. This effort, fueled by the passion of hundreds of volunteers, gathered over 80,000 signatures to get the question on the ballot, with signatures coming from nearly every town in Maine. This effort was rewarded with more than 240,000 Mainers casting “yes” votes to reject high voltage electric transmission lines like the NECEC project. It turns out this unnecessary destructive project coupled with CMP’s last-in-the-nation reputation turned Maine voters out in droves to participate in this off-year election.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Saviello is a former legislator from Wilton. He was a leader in the Question 1 campaign

This vote triggered a significant change in circumstances that led Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection to suspend the permit for the NECEC on Nov. 23. NECEC CEO Thorn Dickinson commented that there was no need for the suspension, as Avangrid “voluntarily” ceased operations.

Really? Does anyone trust Avangrid/NECEC/CMP to follow this voluntary shutdown? No! We might have believed it if they had done the right thing by shutting the project down immediately following the vote. It is doubtful that without our governor (one of their biggest supporters) requesting that they stop, and the DEP stepping in, CMP would have kept developing the NECEC.

Avangrid/CMP, and its partner, Hydro Quebec (owned by a foreign government), spent an astonishing $73 million to influence the outcome of the November 2nd election. In the end, Maine voters didn’t believe a word they had to say, and voted accordingly. Now, CMP and their partners are behaving like sore losers, lashing out at Gov. Mills and the DEP for doing their job while the courts weigh the merits of the various lawsuits plaguing the future of this deeply unpopular project.

Their letter to Gov. Mills continues to use the same tiresome play book implicating oil and gas money. Conveniently Avangrid’s CEO, Catherine Stempien seems to have forgotten that her job is to oversee Avangrid’s eight electric and gas utilities, including Maine Natural Gas. This hypocritical rhetoric did not gain CMP support during the election, and it still rings hollow today.
At this point, CMP has lost the trust of lawmakers, the regulators who have two pending investigations into the Company’s under performance and the customers who they serve. CMP’s heavy-handed approach following the Nov. 2 vote has further eroded that trust, yet they seem as determined as ever to burn it all to the ground to make a few billion extra dollars for their shareholders.

Having worked in the paper industry for 33 years, I’ve come across a good deal of CEOs. Some were better than others, but even the worst never exhibited the arrogance Avangrid/NECEC/ CMP has displayed by ignoring the clear will of their Mine customers, destroying some of Maine’s most precious habitat resources and sending that shameful letter to Gov. Mills.

Let me be clear, the governor and I are on opposite sides of the NECEC project, but we have expressed that disagreement in a respectful and dignified manner. Her request for an operational suspension was appropriate and necessary. She listened to the 240,000 Mainers who she was elected to represent. Better yet, she listened to Maine’s stockholders – its citizens. Gov. Mills did the right thing! I applaud her for this action.

CMP, Avangrid and NECEC owe Gov. Mills, and the voters of Maine, a sincere apology for their ongoing misconduct. CMP was granted monopoly status to serve the majority of Maine households and businesses. It’s time they stop abusing that privilege, and focus on the job they’ve been hired to do."

Even project supporters like Gov. Mills want the construction to cease, following the Nov. 2 vote.

11/29/2021

Click below to listen on WSKW as Tom Saviello discusses, a leading opponent of The Corridor and with the Me DEP recently suspending the permit.., is that the end of the Corridor?

Click HERE to listen on WSKW as Tom Saviello discusses, a leading opponent of The Corridor and with the Me DEP suspending the permit for it yesterday.., is that the end of the Corridor?

11/29/2021

"The people of Maine have spoken, and we demand our voices be heard and our votes honored. We resoundingly rejected the NECEC..."

On Nov. 2, the people of Maine voted, by an overwhelming majority of 59 to 41, to stop the New England Clean Energy Corridor (NECEC). And yet, CMP continues, aided by the inaction of Governor Mills and the Maine DEP, to clearcut our forest, in blatant disregard of the will of the people. Which begs....

11/27/2021

"In a 36-page filing to the Maine Business and Consumer Court in Portland, Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office argued that Avangrid Networks’ and NECEC Transmission’s claims for the preliminary injunction lack merit. Avangrid, the parent company of both Central Maine Power Co. and NECEC, the entity building the corridor, filed a lawsuit the day after the election saying the referendum was unconstitutional.

The state’s stance is notable given Gov. Janet Mills’ pro-corridor position, although the Democrat urged the corridor’s builders to stop construction last week, which they did within hours. With millions of dollars in business and hundreds of jobs at stake, CMP and its allies have a narrower path to defending the project after the Maine Department of Environmental Protection cited the referendum in suspending a key permit this week."

The battle over Maine’s $1 billion hydropower corridor continued Wednesday when the attorney general asked a court to deny a request by the project’s builder to block the Nov. 2 anti-corridor referendum that voters passed overwhelmingly.

11/26/2021

"The NECEC saga is being followed nationally by energy interests and institutional investors, according to Tim Fox, vice president at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington, D.C., research firm. He had prepared an update Monday for clients that contained this summary: “Notwithstanding NECEC’s efforts to keep the project alive, we continue to regard Question 1 as likely fatal for the transmission line.”

Action late Tuesday by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to suspend the New England Clean Energy Connect’s construction license places the project’s future in court, with a critical hurdle pending for Dec. 15.

11/25/2021

“NECEC made a high-risk business decision and is now asking the court to protect it from the foreseeable consequences of that decision,” the attorney general’s brief said.

“NECEC’s commencement of construction on January 18, 2021, was a calculated risk, and thus not in good faith reliance on the permits,” the brief continued. “In any event, the court should reject the notion that a developer that commences construction of a controversial project in the teeth of a petition drive for a citizen’s initiative that would stop the project can somehow acquire vested rights against the will of the people expressed through the initiative process.”

Maine’s attorney general filed court papers on Wednesday defending the state’s recent referendum that banned construction of a controversial electricity transmission corridor through the Western Maine woods sought by the state’s largest utility, Central Maine Power.

11/24/2021

PRESS RELEASE: DEP suspends permit for CMP Corridor. All construction must cease immediately.

Based on the above findings of facts, analysis and conclusions of law, I, Melanie Loyzim, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental, effective immediately, hereby suspend Department Order -27625-26-A-N/L-27625-TG-B-N/L-27625-2C-C-N/L-27625-VP-D-N/L-27625-IW-E-N, dated May 11, 2020, unl...

11/23/2021

"But project opponents say rather than demonstrate good-faith, evidence shows that the company sped up its construction activities after the vote, in a hurried effort to create a legal fait accompli.

"And why? So as to set the stage for a spurious claim of vested rights," says Robert Weingarten, a spokesman for a group called friends of the Boundary Mountains. He accused state regulators of recklessly delaying action on earlier appeals, and on a decision by a state judge, called Black vs. Cutko, that threw out a lease for state lands CMP needs for its preferred route."

State environmental regulators are in the midst of a day-long hearing to consider revoking or suspending Central Maine Power's license to build its controversial power corridor through western Maine. The testimony comes in the wake of overwhelming voter approval of a ballot measure that aims to kill...

11/23/2021

"John Cote of Farmingdale said the DEP needs to restore public trust, something that he claims the state agency lost during the permitting process.

“There are no winners here. It’s a mess,” Cote said, referring to the forests that have been cut to make way for the transmission lines. Cote said the Maine DEP has an opportunity to restore public trust, something CMP lost during the NECEC permitting process."

Opponents and supporters of the controversial New England Clean Energy Connect took turns Monday debating detailed legal ramifications at a hearing that will help determine whether a pending law approved by voters on Nov. 2 compels Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection to suspend or revok...