Avangrid (NYSE:AGR) won another round Thursday in the long-running court battle over the $1 billion, 1,200-MW transmission line it is attempting to build in Maine.
A jury in Portland decided the developer had a right to resume construction of the New England Clean Energy Connect, which would bring hydropower from Quebec to Massachusetts.
Maine residents rejected NECEC in a November 2021 referendum, and groups such as the Natural Resources Council of Maine have mounted one legal challenge after another, stalling a project first floated in 2017.
But Maine’s highest court ruled in August 2022 that the referendum might have been invalid. (See Maine Court Ruling Gives New Life to Contentious Transmission Line.) In November 2022, the high court overturned a lower court’s ruling vacating a lease agreement for public lands. (See NECEC Scores Another Victory in Maine’s Highest Court.)
The trial ending Thursday was held to resolve a question unanswered in the November ruling: Whether the developer had vested rights to complete construction of the line.
The jury unanimously decided that it does.
But that is not necessarily the final chapter in the saga, as NECEC opponents could appeal Thursday’s verdict to the state Supreme Judicial Court. The Portland Press Herald noted that NECEC still faces appeals in state and federal court of permits issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Nonetheless, Avangrid welcomed the verdict as a victory.
“The jury’s unanimous verdict affirms the prior rulings of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court that the New England Clean Energy Connect project may lawfully proceed,” Senior Vice President Scott Mahoney said in a news release. “Even after repeated delays and the costs caused by the change in law, the NECEC project remains the best way to bring low-cost renewable energy to Maine and New England while removing millions of metric tons of carbon from our atmosphere each year.”
ISO-NE welcomed the verdict as well.
“We are pleased that this project can continue to move forward,” Vice President Anne George said in a news release. “The New England states’ ambitious climate goals will require building significant amounts of new infrastructure in a region where building infrastructure has been difficult. ISO New England looks forward to continuing our work with the New England states and other stakeholders, to making a clean and reliable future grid a reality.”
NECEC would be part of the system operated by Central Maine Power, an Avangrid subsidiary. The roughly 145-mile line is expected to import approximately 9.5 TWh/year of electricity generated by Hydro-Quebec. Avangrid said it would save Massachusetts ratepayers $190 million a year while reducing emissions by the equivalent of 600,000 cars. Completion was initially projected in 2023 when work began in early 2021.
Fierce opposition erupted on multiple fronts in Maine, where some residents were concerned about the environmental impact of a project that would not directly benefit their state.
Other opposition was more subtle.
NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE), whose 1.24-GW nuclear power station in Seabrook, New Hampshire, might suffer in competition with an influx of low-cost electricity, supported efforts to block the line.
NextEra and Avangrid also squabbled over a circuit breaker at Seabrook that would be necessary once NECEC came online. The matter went to FERC — which ruled that NextEra could not refuse to install it — but the two had worked out an agreement by that point. (See FERC Resolves NextEra-Avangrid Dispute over Seabrook Circuit Breaker.)
