Central Maine Power

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has vetoed a bill that would have barred entities owned by foreign governments from influencing ballot campaigns with advertising and other forms of electioneering.

A bid to establish a consumer-owned utility hit a snag late Thursday after the Maine Senate failed to enact it.

The Legislature’s committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology voted 9-2 on Tuesday in support of legislation to create a consumer owned utility, Pine Tree Power, that would replace investor-owned Central Maine Power and Versant.

Run by an elected board, the new company would take over the transmission systems now owned by Central Maine Power and Versant.

In the face of many challenges, trees are being cut and cleared, and poles are rising from the brush. Some observers say the $950 million project's gathering momentum could make it unstoppable.

A federal appeals court has lifted an injunction that bars Central Maine Power from clearing trees in part of its planned transmission corridor to Canada.

The amended bill would bar any company with greater than 10 percent ownership by a foreign government from electioneering or contributing to another domestic political group.

For the past month Maine lawmakers have been considering a slate of bills that could sideline Hydro-Quebec from an upcoming referendum on Central Maine Power's highly controversial transmission project.

The state has opened public comments on the wording of a ballot question aimed at challenging Central Maine Power's controversial transmission project underway in western Maine.

State regulators are launching an investigation into how Central Maine Power responded to the implementation of new solar energy development in Maine. Developers say that when new legislative mandates for solar energy were introduced, CMP dropped the ball.