Legal fight begins over Hydro-Quebec line in Maine, with land partially cleared

Montreal -

The legal fight began immediately after Tuesday's referendum in Maine over a Hydro-Quebec power line worth $10 billion through the state.

It's no abstract battle of paperwork, as the transmission line is already under construction, and has been for almost a year.

The referendum results came in near midnight on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Maine's power corporation, which is responsible for building the power line, filed a lawsuit in Maine Superior Court arguing it's unconstitutional to allow the referendum to decide the project's future.

"This Initiative represents an extraordinary attempt to deprive a private party of vested rights in the construction and operation of a multi-year development project," they said in the legal complaint.

The company asked for a preliminary injunction allowing them to keep building.

The results on Tuesday struck a blow to Hydro-Quebec, which would earn $10 billion from the project. The transmission line would carry electricity to Massachusetts, passing through Maine to get there.

The company got the regulatory approvals needed to build it, though non-government groups collected enough signatures to force a referendum on its future.

On Wednesday, the power giant and Quebec Premier François Legault both pledged to fight the result, though Legault suggested that the answer may not be in a legal fight but in a "plan B" or different route.

But plenty of building has already been done in Maine, argued Avangrid, the company that owns Central Maine Power. They are building the line, called NECEC, as a project-specific entity named after it.

Building started in January 2021, they said.

"To date, NECEC LLC has expended approximately $449.8 million dollars on the Project, and substantial physical construction has occurred," they wrote in the court filing.

That includes about 124 miles of corridor that's "been cut," they said.

"Over 120 structures have been erected along" different segments of the line, and "over three miles of conductor" already strung.

They've begun preparing the site and the construction for a converter station as well.

On Thursday, a Maine environmental group applied to the state's environment department for their own stay, which would halt construction.

"Despite... the unequivocal repudiation of the NECEC Project by the people of Maine, Thorn Dickinson, President of NECEC Transmission, has vowed that [the power company] will continue constructing the banned corridor," wrote the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

The group argued that the only harm the power companies will suffer, if the stay is granted, is "monetary," while for locals the environmental changes can't be undone.

"An immediate stay is necessary to protect the public from the irreparable harm that will result from CMP’s continued clearing and construction," they wrote.

There was already a similar request underway, with the environmental department facing an older request to halt the project, in light of a court ruling finding that it didn't have the right to cross areas of public land, according to Maine news outlets.

On Thursday evening, a Hydro-Quebec spokesperson told CTV that it has no comment yet on the day's request for a stay since it hasn't seen it yet.