Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court has upheld the validity of state land leases granted for the corridor of a $1-billion, 145-mile transmission line underway by utility Central Maine Power to connect Canadian hydropower to Massachusetts’ power grid.
The Nov. 29 ruling rejected the claim in a lawsuit by opponents to the project, New England Clean Energy Connect, that a 2021 state referendum that halted construction also nullified the leases. The court ruled that the referendum vote could not retroactively nullify leases granted by the Maine Bureau of Park and Lands for two tracts of public reserved lands on 1,241 acres in Maine's Upper Kennebec Region.