With construction on a controversial electrical transmission line through western Maine slated to begin in mid-November, company officials are looking for Mainers who’d like a job working on the $1 billion project.
“We’re ramping up here with the work,” the head of the project, Thorn Dickinson, said Wednesday.
Tim Burgess, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 104, said, “We’re really excited to get started on this.”
Central Maine Power’s controversial proposal for a transmission line through western Maine continues to draw attention from regulators and opponents. On Tuesday morning, the Maine Public Utilities Commission gave its final approval for a spinoff company to own and operate the project. The new company is called NECEC LLC, for the New England Clean Energy Connect.
PUC commissioners also turned down a complaint from independent U.S. Senate candidate Max Linn, who alleged the Commission failed to properly value and seek compensation for economic harms the transmission line would cause.
Central Maine Power and its parent have filed a complaint alleging a competitor opposed to its $1 billion hydropower corridor has illegally obstructed the project by refusing to complete upgrades necessary to connect the project to the regional grid.
It is no secret that NextEra Energy Resources, a large Florida-based utility that operates a clean-energy business in Maine and New Hampshire while also owning the oil-fired Wyman Station plant in Yarmouth, has opposed the New England Clean Energy Connect, the formal name of the proposed 145-mile corridor.
NextEra donated $53,000 to Mainers for Local Power, a ballot question group also funded by two Texas-based natural gas companies to back a now-defunct referendum bid to kill the project, and has been a party to various lawsuits challenging state-granted permits. Supporters of the project have long noted that NextEra stands to lose money if the project is completed.
The Morning Sentinel reports the New England Clean Energy Connect is just waiting on a permit. If it receives that permit, construction could start as early as next month. An official with the project made the announcement Thursday at a business breakfast.
The New England Clean Energy Connect would serve as a conduit for up to 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower. The project calls for construction of a high-voltage power line from the Canadian border to the regional power grid in Lewiston, Maine. Most of the project would follow existing utility corridors, but a new path would have to be cut through 53 miles of wilderness.
Gov. Janet Mills on Friday announced a $170 million deal with Hydro-Quebec to provide discounted electricity to the state through Central Maine Power’s transmission corridor, though opponents of the project said it would largely benefit industrial users.
Under the agreement, Hydro-Quebec will provide up to 500,000 megawatt hours of electricity a year to Maine based on a 1,200 megawatt capacity of the proposed New England Clean Energy Connect. The amount could fall if the transmission corridor’s capacity is reduced. It is enough energy to power 70,000 homes or 10,000 businesses, according to the governor’s office.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has issued a permit to Central Maine Power Co. for construction of the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission corridor project through western Maine.
The environmental permit is one of the last major regulatory hurdles for the $1 billion project, which now only needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a presidential permit to cross the Canadian border. That permit would come from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a permit to Central Maine Power Company (CMP) on Monday for construction of the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project.
CMP now still needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers. According to NEWS CENTER Maine's partners at the Portland Press Herald, the project also still requires a presidential permit to cross the Canadian border, which would come from the U.S. Department of Energy.
AUGUSTA, MAINE, May 11, 2020 - Today, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a permit to Central Maine Power Company (CMP) for construction of the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project. The project includes an electric transmission line from the Quebec border in Beattie Township to a new converter station in Lewiston, as well as several upgrades to CMP's existing electrical transmission network between Lewiston and Pownal, Windsor and Wiscasset, and in Cumberland.
With municipal revenue likely to fall in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, city officials are looking with hope to the controversial New England Clean Energy Connect project that could pour millions of additional dollars into the city’s coffers.
The extra property tax money from a new substation “would be a lifesaver for the city of Lewiston,” Mayor Mark Cayer told members of a poverty awareness committee Wednesday.
He called the $7 million or more of additional tax revenue the project would create “a game changer for our community” because it would provide the cash to address key social issues while simultaneously allowing Lewiston to reduce the burden on residents he said are overtaxed today.
Lewiston officials hope that the controversial New England Clean Energy Connect project will pour $7 million or more of new tax revenue into the city’s coffers, the Sun Journal reports.
With municipal revenue likely to fall due to the coronavirus pandemic, the extra property tax money from a new substation “would be a life saver for the city of Lewiston,” Mayor Mark Cayer told members of a poverty awareness committee Wednesday.
A Central Maine Power Co. affiliate has signed an additional $7 million worth of contracts with four Maine companies for work related to its controversial power transmission corridor project through western Maine.
The work will be divided among Eastern Forest Products in Casco, Maine Mats in Bingham, Dimensional Timber in Palermo and Sunset Development Inc. in Milford.
The New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) has awarded more than $300 million in contracts to build and upgrade transmission and provide land clearing for the transmission line project. The contracts were awarded to Maine-based Cianbro in a joint venture with Irby Construction, Sargent Electric, and Northern Clearing, Inc. (NCI). The companies said they will subcontract work to other Maine-based suppliers, contractors and consultants and hire Maine workers when possible.
“Central Maine Power Co.’s plan to build a transmission line through western Maine’s mountains cleared a significant hurdle Friday when the Maine Department of Environmental Protection issued a draft permit for the $1 billion project.
The initial approval puts significant conditions on the project to limit its impacts, in one instance decreasing the width of the corridor to nearly one-third of what the company had requested.”
“More than 50 Maine businesses and labor and environmental leaders come together to show their support for the New England Clean Energy Connect Project.
Three Maine-based businesses were awarded contracts last week to manufacture mats that will be used in the construction process to limit the destruction to the landscape.”