INTERVIEW: NECEC CEO says CMP transmission corridor on track despite politicization

It’s been a dizzying year of twists and turns for Central Maine Power’s (CMP) controversial transmission corridor through western Maine, with a drawn out series of legal opposition attempting to stymie the project.

The USD 1bn, 1,200 MW hydropower New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project, a joint venture between Avangrid subsidiary CMP and Hydro-Quebec (HQ), will deliver energy from Quebec to Massachusetts by way of a 145-mile transmission cable generated from HQ's dam system at the Canadian border to Lewiston, ME.

Most recently, a referendum aimed at quashing the corridor was struck down as unconstitutional by the state’s high court, with the lower court ordered to remove the question from November’s ballot.

“We’re very confident where we sit right now,” Thorn Dickinson, NECEC CEO & President, told New Project Media. “We have one permit that we need in order to move into construction and that's the Army Corps of Engineers, and we’re hoping to get that any day. We’re really looking into the November time period to start. The referendum process is a long tradition here in Maine. We feel that the opposition here is really misusing the referendum process to politicize a project that has already gotten all the regulatory approvals through the executive branch, and then dealt with the appeals of the fossil fuel companies through the judicial branch. I think it's been very clear that the people that are charged with protecting the state of Maine have concluded that this project is not only good for the environment but good for the economy.”

Support

In May, the project received final approval from Maine’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), with the agency adding several caveats including narrowing the width of the new section of corridor, preservation of more than 40,000 acres of land, and the allocation of nearly USD 2m to replace culverts along the project route. 

“We are, of course, at a time when Maine really needs a boost in the economy,” Dickinson said.  “And then the challenge of climate change is being brought up even more clearly with some of the challenges on the West Coast. The DEP said the impacts associated with this project have really been mitigated and it should move forward to begin construction. So we feel very confident that the right people have looked at this project in the executive and judicial branch.”

The project, slated to be completed by mid-2023, has received plenty of high-profile support from Gov. Janet Mills, Maine's Office of the Public Advocate, the Industrial Energy Consumer Group, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), among others.

“Massachusetts is, of course, paying 100 percent of the project," Dickinson said. "Maine doesn't pay anything for it, so we get all the benefits without paying the cost of it. The opposition was a little bit more than we thought. I think the fossil fuel industry has used some of these tactics across the country to aggressively misrepresent the benefits and the impacts of this project. But in the end we still feel very good about this project. We think that it’s going to be great for the state, great for the region, and we think we’ll do fine on it.”

The project, which is expected to inject USD 573m into the state’s economy during construction, has also received critical support from many businesses across Maine.

“The Maine State Chamber of Commerce has been a huge support to the project from the beginning, as well as many of the businesses that are represented there,” Dickinson said. “Some of the contractors that would see the jobs and would be doing the hiring for this, including Cinbro, Sargent and Northern Clearing, are big supporters of the project. IBEW 104 would get many of these jobs; we’re estimating right now that around 70 percent of the jobs will be union, so they're extremely excited about the opportunities this project will bring. We have big supporters in the communities up there. Obviously there are some businesses against the project but others that are big supporters. The rafting business that’s up there, some of the restaurant businesses, the hotels recognize how important this is going to be in the community."

Jobs & benefits

NECEC will support close to 2,000 jobs during development, primarily in western Maine counties.

“We’re going to need about 1,600 jobs during the construction period starting on average over the two-and-a-half years of the construction, beginning in November and going through the second quarter of 2023,” Dickinson said. “We’re going to need people not only to get the access road and right of way ready, but all the protection we put on the right of way before we construct them, and then building the line and all the crews that go with that. And all those people have to stay in hotels and have restaurants in the area, so you have the direct jobs and you have the indirect jobs.”

The project will also bring in significant property tax revenues to towns along the corridor.

“We estimated, as did third parties during the regulatory proceedings, that USD 18m a year will flow into these communities along the corridor, and many of these communities are areas that were struggling pre-COVID and now are seeing even bigger challenges to their revenue line,” Dickinson said. “More recently, there was a settlement package of about USD 260m that were incremental additional benefits that go to Mainers and they included lower rates, funds for low-income customers, new EV programs, heat pump programs, and other things for education and economic development. And all of those packages and benefits, rather than waiting until the project is complete in the middle of 2023, the Governor negotiated a new program to accelerate this to 1 October of this year, so those payments are going to start.”

A 2019 agreement calls for a USD 50m low-income customer benefits fund, a USD 140m rate relief fund, a USD 15m heat pump fund and USD 10m from Hydro-Quebec for electric vehicles.

In addition, USD 10m in broadband funds will be deployed to areas of western Maine.

“Those communities through the COVID period that haven't been able to remotely do education or healthcare or order materials or things that they need have really been struggling,” Dickinson said. “So in all of those categories we’re going to start looking for opportunities to deploy those funds to those different areas. I do think the opposition has done a good job of misrepresenting the true benefits that this project brings to Maine. Because we’re now accelerating those, I think people that were skeptical about whether they would see benefits are now going to start seeing stories about how this project already, just during construction, is providing a meaningful benefit to the communities that they live in."

Other imminent approvals include the Presidential Permit from the U.S. Dept. of Energy and a final permit from ISO-New England.

“We’re still thinking out the details of a modern job fair within COVID as we do need a lot of people to help support the project and to work on it,” Dickinson said. “We’re looking forward to having really good paying jobs for Mainers that want to work on the project. And that's our goal. Anybody in Maine who wants to work on the project, we want to make sure that there’s a job for them.”