A set of appeals challenging the state's environmental permit for Central Maine Power's controversial energy corridor and its transfer to a spinoff company are on hold. But a draft decision by staff at the Board of Environmental Protection would uphold both.
The board was supposed to hold two days of hearings on the issues this week, but that's been postponed due to COVID exposures within the BEP. Meanwhile, board staff released a draft memo recommending some new conditions to strengthen oversight of vegetation management in the corridor, but also denying the appeals.
One appellant, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, says the permit is now irrelevant, because voters in November approved a law that ostensibly terminates the project. That referendum, however, is under appeal to the state Supreme Judicial Court.