Credit score: by Billy Kobin. November 16, 2023, Up to date November 17, 2023. bangordailynews.com ~~
High Maine lawmakers agreed Thursday to advance a invoice to the 2024 session that might prohibit the usage of eminent area to construct a controversial transmission line between Aroostook County and the Augusta space.
The ten-member Legislative Council initially didn’t approve the proposal from Sen. Chip Curry, D-Belfast, whereas voting final week on 283 invoice requests for 2024. Nevertheless, the panel returned on Thursday to listen to appeals from lawmakers who sponsored measures that had been rejected, voting 9-1 to advance the invoice pertaining to the Aroostook Renewable Gateway venture.
That vote was a sign that the politics across the proposal might be shifting after protests in affected communities over the summer time. Each Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, and Senate Minority Chief Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, had been early backers of the plan. Jackson voted to think about the eminent area ban, whereas Stewart opposed doing so.
The $2.8 billion venture would hyperlink a brand new Aroostook County wind farm with as much as 179 generators to the regional energy grid. The extra controversial component is a transmission line that might run between 140 to 160 miles lengthy between Glenwood Plantation and Windsor.
Supporters argue the King Pine Wind venture from developer Longroad Vitality is a crucial vitality and financial improvement venture for the area. The facility would come from the most important land-based wind farm east of the Mississippi River and produce 3.18 billion kilowatt-hours per yr, sufficient to energy as much as 450,000 houses.
After the Legislature and Gov. Janet Mills initially accredited the venture this summer time, a number of cities, residents and farmers have argued it will encroach on non-public property and have railed in opposition to lawmakers for approving the road earlier than builders shared its potential route.
Curry mentioned Thursday he helps renewable vitality improvement but in addition feels infrastructure “too typically will get positioned in communities” which might be politically and economically deprived.
The transmission line developer, New York-based LS Energy, has held a number of public conferences this yr in cities the place the route may go via and has mentioned it’s contemplating suggestions earlier than finalizing the route. It revealed a research this summer time that mentioned the road and wind farm will save Maine electrical energy prospects about $900 million over roughly 25 years.
LS Energy vice chairman Doug Mulvey mentioned the corporate won’t touch upon Curry’s proposal till it sees the contents of the invoice. Mulvey additionally mentioned LS Energy obtained about 1,000 public feedback on the routes the corporate introduced at July city halls.
The Legislative Council declined to advance different payments regarding the transmission line, together with one from Assistant Senate Minority Chief Lisa Keim, R-Dixfield, that might require lawmakers approve any elevated prices to ratepayers ensuing from the northern Maine venture.
