Maine’s high court on Tuesday issued another favorable ruling for the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission project, increasing the possibility that the contentious line will be resurrected.

The decision by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court marks the second in favor of the project since August, when it found that a referendum blocking the project may have been unconstitutional. (See Maine Court Ruling Gives New Life to Contentious Transmission Line).

In Tuesday’s order, the court reversed an August 2021 decision by the state’s Business and Consumer Court to vacate a lease agreement for public lands between the Maine Bureau of Parks and Land (BPL) and Central Maine Power, NECEC’s developer.

The court said that the BPL had followed the appropriate process in approving the lease, and found that Question 1, the referendum Maine voters approved in 2021 to oppose the project, had not vacated the lease.

“Because we conclude that the evidence contained in the record is sufficient, we see no reason to impose a further burden on the parties’ time and resources by remanding for the Bureau to take further evidence,” the five-judge panel wrote. “We conclude that the record establishes that the Bureau acted within its constitutional and statutory authority in granting the 2020 lease.”

Together, this week’s ruling and the August one mark significant victories that could put the project back on track.

“We think these two decisions have resuscitated the viability of the transmission project,” ClearView Energy Partners said in a note to clients.

A legal fight over Question 1 will continue, with the Business and Consumer Court set to hear more arguments in April as to “whether or not CMP had vested rights to complete construction of transmission line,” according to ClearView.

Depending on how that decision goes, CMP could restart construction as early as mid-2023, or face the prospect of having to make another appeal to the state’s highest court.

“Today’s ruling by the Law Court is yet another step in the right direction for Maine’s renewable energy future,” Scott Mahoney, senior vice president at CMP parent company Avangrid, said in a statement.

NECEC proponents have been arguing for years that the project is necessary to transmit electricity from hydro plants in Quebec down through Maine and into Massachusetts.

“The serious need for the NECEC project to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, combat climate change, and lower regional energy prices remains unchanged,” Mahoney said.