By Michael Shepherd - April 24, 2023
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📷 Protesters gather outside a state meeting on Central Maine Power's proposed hydropower corridor on July 20, 2022, at the Augusta Civic Center. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

Good morning from Augusta. Legislative committees are in today. Here's the agenda.

What we're watching today

The anti-corridor movement loses a final battle, but utilities have big obstacles ahead. The five-year regulatory and politics battle over the Central Maine Power Co. hydropower corridor reached a climax last week, when a jury sided with the utility in saying it had the right to build the project by the time voters rejected it in 2021. More procedural steps could be ahead in the case.

But it seems like the project is on its firmest footing since 2019, when it won key support from Gov. Janet Mills and towns before the worst of the political backlash. It first came from a grassroots movement rooted in western Maine, where the corridor would run. The campaign two years ago was a record-breaking $90 million proxy war between CMP and their competitors.

The utility has consistently been winning in court, including on battles over the power of the voters and the legitimacy of key public leases. It was not certain if that would continue until Thursday, when the jury's decision came down in perhaps the nation's first trial leaving a utility project's fate to a jury.

Corridor opponents' gamble on a jury from the electorate that rebuked the project did not pay off. They are sounding pessimistic for the moment. Former state Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton, a prominent anti-corridor activist, bemoaned that voter approval could not factor into the jury's decision.

"I'm on the side of 243,000 people. They didn't want it," he said. "Fourteen people wanted it," a reference to five justices on Maine's high court and the nine jury members.

Avangrid, CMP's parent, was predictably buoyed by the news, with Scott Mahoney, a top lawyer for the company, saying the project was "the best way to bring low-cost renewable energy to Maine and New England" despite delays.

CMP is not out of the woods. On the corridor, the utility and its partners need to finally prevail in court, win back permits and get back to construction this year if the project is going to hit a goal to start operating by December 2024.

All the while, the utility and Versant Power, its counterpart in Maine's northern population half, will be fighting in yet another campaign over the future of their businesses. Mainers will vote in November on a proposal to put the utilities under the control of an elected board, something likely to draw years of legal wrangling if it gets by voters. We now know voters do not have all the say.

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News and notes

📷 Bartender Nikki Nelson makes a cocktail at Timber Kitchen and Bar in Bangor on Oct. 15, 2020. (BDN photo by Natalie Williams)

📄 Bills begin to run through the Legislature. Here are some highlights.

◉ To-go alcohol is coming to Maine in perpetuity. Last week, the Legislature sent a bill from Sen. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock, that would continue the pandemic-era policy, to Gov. Janet Mills' desk. It will allow bars and restaurants to sell alcohol, including cocktails and growlers, for off-premises consumption, jumping off past temporary measures on the subject.

◉ Libertarian-leaning Republicans are having some success in the Democratic-led Legislature. Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, got a bill aimed at increasing contraception access through a legislative committee early this month, while nine members of the Judiciary Committee endorsed a bill from Rep. David Boyer, R-Mechanic Falls, that would drop a requirement for lawyers to attend law school.

◉ Boyer also had success with a measure that would force governors to fill vacancies in the U.S. Senate with politicians who have the same political affiliation as the senator leaving the office. A legislative committee voted 9-2 last week to endorse a version of that measure.

🚢 The Navy boss comes to Maine's border shipyard today.

◉ Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, will will join U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery for an afternoon tour and news conference.

◉ Gilday, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, made headlines in recent days for defending a non-binary sailor whose story was shared by the Navy's public-relations arm, leading to criticism from some Republican senators.

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What we're reading

🐣 The iconic Maine tradition of homesteading is pushed further out of reach.

🔎 Friends of the slain Bowdoin couple struggle to reconcile loss with deep faith. Last week's shooting highlight a persistent Maine problem, but there are still unanswered questions.

📰 A new nonprofit tries to raise $15 million to buy several Maine newspapers.

🐕 This Maine dog daycare is in peril after a town revoked a permit it granted.

🚌 Meet the man who wants to expand public transit in northern Maine. Here's your soundtrack.

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