Board of Environmental Protection has rescheduled NECEC appeals for deliberation

May 23, 2022

The Board of Environmental Protection has rescheduled a meeting originally set for May 17-18, 2002, to consider appeals of the Site Location of Development and Natural Resources Protection Act permits issued to Central Maine Power Company and NECEC Transmission LLC to construct the New England Clean Energy Connect project. The next dates available for all appeal participants is July 20-21, 2022. The Board will meet at the Augusta Civic Center in Augusta on July 20 and 21, 2022, to consider the appeals of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, and a consolidated group of Maine residents, small businesses and towns referred to as the West Forks Group.

The record of information for the Board's consideration is closed. The record includes all public comments submitted to the Department during the processing of the license applications between 2017 and 2019, hearing testimony from six days of evidentiary hearings in 2019, and all other records admitted as evidence through the sixteen procedural orders issued by the hearing presiding officer.

The meetings on July 20 and 21, 2022, are not public hearings. The meetings are being conducted in accordance with the Departments rules to allow the licensees, the appellants, and persons who were intervenors in the licensing hearing to make oral argument before the Board. No additional evidence or public comment will be accepted at the meeting.

At the July 20-21, 2022 meetings, the Board is expected to vote on whether to hold a hearing on the appeals. If the Board votes not to hold a hearing on the appeals, it will proceed on July 21st with deliberations for a possible vote and decision on the merits of the consolidated appeals. If the Board votes to hold a hearing, that hearing would be scheduled for the earliest possible date, and the Board would not deliberate the merits of the consolidated appeals until that date.

Excerpts from the record included in the board packet for the Boards consideration of the NECEC appeals are available at https://www.maine.gov/dep/bep/featured.html.

The public may attend the meeting in person or watch the proceedings live by going to https://mainestate.zoom.us/j/82071377008 for the video feed. This and other information will be included in the agenda for the Board meeting, which will be available at https://www.maine.gov/dep/bep/index.html.

For additional information, contact: David R. Madore, Deputy Commissioner, DEP

david.madore@maine.gov

or

William F. Hinkel, Executive Analyst, BEP

bill.hinkel@maine.gov