Central Maine Power

The average Central Maine Power customer could see their electricity bills increase by as much as $10 a month over the next three years, if a new grid upgrade plan from the utility gets approval from state regulators.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments in which CMP seeks to throw out the result of last year's referendum, and the Board of Environmental Protection will take up CMP's appeal of a ruling.

The pushback from the competing factions highlights how the governor's proposal attempts to split the difference between the status quo and a consumer-owned utility scheme that voters might get a chance to approve at the ballot box next year.

Solar power developers stampeded into Maine last year, spurred by new incentives. But the actual buildout was hampered by CMP's slow and sometimes inaccurate provision of planning studies needed to safely interconnect new projects to its system.

The fate of Central Maine Power's controversial energy corridor through western Maine is now in the hands of the state's highest court.

Maine's top environmental regulator on Tuesday evening suspended Central Maine Power's permit for its controversial transmission corridor through Maine's western woods.

Gov. Janet Mills said she hopes the courts will quickly address whether Central Maine Power can continue construction on a transmission line through western Maine.

CMP is vowing to challenge the constitutionality of the ballot question that CMP and its allies spent $63 million trying to defeat. Now, the focus shifts to imminent legal and regulatory challenges, which project opponents worry will buy CMP enough time to complete most of the construction.

Maine voters delivered a decisive rebuke Tuesday to the state's largest utility, Central Maine Power, when they halted construction of its $1 billion transmission corridor through western Maine in a vote of 60% to 40%, as of early Wednesday morning.

State regulators are calling a public hearing on whether they should pull the license they issued for Central Maine Power's transmission line through western Maine.