PORTLAND, Maine — The battle over a $1 billion inexperienced power transmission line that received all regulatory approvals solely to be rebuked by Maine residents in a retroactive referendum goes to a jury.
In a uncommon transfer, a jury of 9 is being requested to resolve a sophisticated constitutional matter — whether or not builders have a vested proper to finish the 145-mile challenge, which might provide Canadian hydropower to the New England energy grid.
The constitutionality of the statewide referendum on the challenge is determined by the jury’s choice on the slim vested-rights difficulty.
“We’re not aware of a similar instance in which the fate of a large energy asset rests in the hands of a jury. This is an unusual circumstance,” Timothy Fox, vice chairman of Clear View Partners, an power analysis agency in Washington, D.C., mentioned earlier than the trial started in a packed courtroom Monday.
Attorneys for teams against the challenge recommended to jurors on Monday that builders rushed development with a objective of successful vested rights and nullifying the referendum.
But John Armando, lawyer for the builders, mentioned the development schedule was put in place years earlier, and that the case is “about fundamental fairness, about vested rights, about protection of property rights against retroactive laws.”
Last yr, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court breathed new life into the stalled challenge when it dominated the retroactive nature of the statewide vote to cease the challenge would violate the builders’ constitutional rights if substantial development already had begun in good religion earlier than the referendum. Construction began in January 2021, about 10 months earlier than the referendum by which 59% of voters rejected the challenge.
Justice Michael A. Duddy might have made the fact-finding dedication himself however dominated in favor of challenge opponents who requested for a jury to make the dedication. That ruling is taken into account a victory for individuals who are against the challenge.
Central Maine Power’s father or mother firm and Hydro Quebec teamed up on New England Clean Energy Connect, which was unveiled in 2017 with a objective of supplying as much as 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to the New England energy grid. That is sufficient electrical energy for 1 million properties.
The challenge encountered opposition every step of the way in which even because it obtained all essential regulatory approvals. Developers already had begun chopping bushes and setting poles for months when the governor requested for work to be suspended after voters rejected the challenge in November 2021.
Supporters say daring initiatives akin to this one, funded by ratepayers in Massachusetts, are essential to battle local weather change and introduce further electrical energy right into a area that’s closely reliant on pure gasoline, which may trigger spikes in power prices.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”