Earthrise continued its legal fight for its clients in Maine—the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Appalachian Mountain Club—to prevent Central Maine Power from building a new 53-mile transmission corridor through the western Maine Mountains without a sufficient environmental review by the federal government. The new corridor is part of a larger project to deliver energy from large, environmentally destructive “megadams” in Canada to Massachusetts. The Army Corps and the Department of Energy have both permitted the project, but without the legally required level of environmental review.
The new corridor is proposed to cut through an area of Maine that is largely undeveloped and unfragmented, which makes it one of the last places in the eastern United States that can support all native species that haven’t already been extirpated. Canada lynx and American marten roam the forests there, and the cold-water streams provide critical habitat for native brook trout.
The source of the electricity also is highly controversial. Although it is billed as “clean” or “green” energy, the electricity generated by the large dams in Canada emits a surprisingly high amount of greenhouse gases, and the dams themselves are incredibly ecologically destructive and poison the traditional food sources of indigenous communities by releasing methylmercury into the waterways. In issuing the project a Clean Water Act permit, the Corps failed to adequately analyze these impacts and others caused by the transmission line itself, including forest and habitat fragmentation, impacts to aquatic resources, degradation of spectacular scenery, and increased fire hazards in remote areas of Maine.
On January 15th, just as Central Maine Power Company was beginning construction activities on the new corridor, Earthrise was able to win an injunction from the First Circuit Court of Appeals, while the court considered whether the district court in Maine should have granted a similar injunction. Oral argument for the case was heard on March 30th and now we await the First Circuit’s decision.
“For a substantially similar proposed transmission line through New Hampshire recently, the federal government did an Environmental Impact Statement, which allowed for robust public participation,” says Earthrise attorney Lia Comerford, who is working on the case with Kevin Cassidy. “But in Maine, the Corps and DOE chose to short circuit the environmental review process and their findings that a highly controversial project of this scope would not have significant impacts on the environment fell far short of meeting the relevant legal standard.”
