Franklin Matters: Maine

Showing posts with label Maine. Show all posts

Friday, April 21, 2023

CommonWealth Magazine: jury greenlights transmission line; Boston combines library branches and affordable housing

Maine jury delivers hydro relief for Mass

"BAY STATE and many New England policymakers breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after a jury in Maine voted 9-0 to green light the completion of a Massachusetts-financed transmission line carrying hydroelectricity from Quebec into New England.

The transmission line and the power it will carry are of pivotal importance if Massachusetts is going to reach its climate change goals, but the project has been in legal limbo since 2021 when 59 percent of Maine voters approved a ballot question that retroactively killed it."

Continue reading the article online ->
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/energy/maine-jury-delivers-hydro-relief-for-mass/

Boston pitches libraries, affordable housing as perfect match

"In three Boston neighborhoods, home could soon be where the stacks are.

The city is set to join a handful of other places that combine public libraries with affordable housing, a popular pairing that addresses increasingly pricey housing markets and limited land for new development."

Continue reading the article online ->
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/the-download/boston-pitches-libraries-affordable-housing-as-perfect-match-2/

The Fields Corner branch of the Boston Public Library. (Photo by Michael Jonas)

Saturday, May 16, 2020

In the News: "Mass. hydro project caught up in Maine ballot fight"

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

"The project that would provide New England with its largest source of renewable energy and Massachusetts with about a fifth of its electricity demand is at the center of a simmering political and legal fight taking shape in Maine.

New England Clean Energy Connect, a 145-mile transmission project of Central Maine Power Company, is expected to link the electrical grids in Quebec and New England to provide cleaner and more reliable hydropower directly to a converter station in Lewiston, Maine, and into the regional power grid.

This week, CMP’s parent company filed a lawsuit against the state of Maine claiming a ballot question that project opponents got on the November ballot to overturn a key permit approval is unconstitutional. That suit came days after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a separate case that contested signatures turned in by project opponents were valid.

Bay State utilities and Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration chose the project to help Massachusetts meet its statutory requirements to increase renewable energy supplies after their first choice -- the Northern Pass project through the White Mountains of New Hampshire -- was stymied by regulators there."