Regulators grant delay on transmission line sought to bring hydropower to Massachusetts

Environmental activists in Maine are celebrating a decision by regulators in that state to delay consideration of the transmission line project that Massachusetts officials are counting on to deliver hydropower from Canada.

Intervenors in the Central Maine Power Company transmission line case before the Maine Public Utilities Commission asked the panel this week to suspend hearings, citing documents recently submitted by the company that "are highly relevant to critical issues in the proceeding and contradict statements in the record that have been made by CMP."

NextEra Energy Resource's motion to suspend the hearings was granted by the commission Friday, with regulators saying hearings scheduled for next week are canceled and that suspension of the hearings "will ultimately result in a more orderly and efficient proceeding," hearing examiners Chris Simpson and Mitchell Tannenbaum wrote.

"A schedule should be adopted that includes an appropriate process for further discovery on newly submitted documents and consideration of the need for additional testimony if warranted," the hearing examiners added, serving notice of a case conference on Oct. 31 "to discuss the additional process and schedule to be adopted in this case."

Sue Ely, a Natural Resources Council of Maine attorney, said the delay was "a welcome acknowledgment that this process has been moving too fast for a thorough analysis of this massive, incredibly complex and flawed project.

"The documents that are just coming to light raise serious questions about where this power will actually come from and what the real impact on the climate and Maine electricity rates will be," she said." Unfortunately CMP has asked the PUC to keep its communications with Hydro-Quebec confidential. But what we have reviewed so far reinforces our concerns that this project will cause significant harm to Maine’s environment while failing to reduce harmful climate pollution at all."

After abandoning the Northern Pass project in New Hampshire, Massachusetts electric distribution companies working with Gov. Charlie Baker's administration in March decided to finalize a long-term contract with the 140-mile transmission project in Maine. Officials are pursuing the major project to comply with a clean energy law approved in 2016.