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Special town meeting scheduled in New Sharon to vote on transmission line moratorium

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NEW SHARON – A special town meeting will be held on Jan. 25 at Cape Cod Hill School to decide if the town should enact a moratorium on transmission line projects.

The Saturday, Jan. 25 meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in the CCHS gym. After electing a moderator, residents will have a single article to consider, deciding whether or not to enact the Elective Electrical Transmission Corridor Moratorium. If approved, the moratorium would prohibit any permitting or other approval processes relating to elective transmission corridors. The moratorium would be retroactively extended back to Jan. 7 – when the selectboard began discussing the issue – and moving forward until either the Site Plan Review Ordinance is amended or until July 23. That 180-day period could be renewed by the selectboard, following a public hearing.

While the article does not name the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line project specifically, it does reference “high interest” in transmission corridor developments in town.

“The Town’s Land Use Ordinances do not provide an adequate mechanism to regulate and control the development of the Elective Electrical Transmission Corridors and are inadequate to prevent serious public harm that could result from the unregulated development of EETCs,” the article reads. “Serious public harm includes, but is not limited to, visual impact, noise, environmental degradation and public health.”

Central Maine Power, who is developing the NECEC project, is currently seeking approval from state and federal regulatory agencies. Earlier this month, the Land Use Planning Commission granted a certification to the project, indicating it met the LUPC’s land use standards. CMP has said that it intends to complete permitting processes and begin construction in 2020.

Previously, the towns of Wilton and Caratunk voted to enact similar moratoriums.

New Sharon resident Diane Kruchkow, who opposes the NECEC project, said via email that the moratorium would allow the town to amend its Site Plan Review Ordinance, which did not currently address transmission lines.

“[This] moratorium is an opportunity for New Sharon residents to formalize their objections to the Corridor and protect our town, which may be permanently changed,” Kruchkow said. She noted that residents of New Sharon had previously voted overwhelmingly against the corridor in a straw poll meant to gauge public support for NECEC.

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10 Comments

  1. It’s not at all clear from this piece whether the town has the right to block the transmission project.

  2. Cute (Not my view…) , but a moratorium will stop work on the corridor in New Sharon (or whatever town has one) for 6 months and possibly a year or more. The right is given to us by the Maine State Constitution.

  3. Shed: These are not meaningless moratoriums. Although limited in governance, they nonetheless.send a clear message to the Spanish conglomerate that controls CMP, their billionaire Qatari investors, and Maine’s politically elite who look to line their pockets at the expense of Maine’s citizens and her environment.

    Through the tireless efforts of grass roots volunteers who realized early on that The Corridor is no more than a profiteering sham project, Mainers have risen up to prevent foreigners from using our beautiful woodlands and mountains as their cash conduit. As each new town stands up and is added to the list of those who want Iberdrola/Avangrid/CMP to stand down, the message becomes louder: Focus on providing reliable electrity and good customer service, and leave Maine’s wilderness areas alone.

  4. Really you people really think this moratorium is going to do something to stop this project to go through Governor Mills has put her signature for approve it, and all the agencies involved has approved it all this is going to do is put the town in a lawsuit with CMP does New Sharon have that type of money and resources to fight a mega company like CMP and their subsidiaries

  5. Me do you think our governor and said agencies should be allowed to nullify our powers provided us by the state constitution ? I believe that these agencies are voting in favor so they keep their jobs because if they dared vote against her they would most definitely be unemployed. I say if she doesn’t start listening to the people that voted her in (I’m not one) and the rest of the people in this state we should kick her out of office.
    People need to start looking all over this country and see what is going on. Virginia has its second amendment under attack and that is just a smoke screen to distract from what gov. Black face is doing. Look up SB399, SJ29,SJ14,SJ8,SB65,SJ6 going on in Virginia’s house. Once people actually look into this I don’t know how they could ever vote democrat again.
    It’s time to recall Gov. Janet !!!!! She’s a crook !!!!!

  6. The moratorium is to give the town of New Sharon time to develop protective ordinances, not to stop the construction of the new corridor in the event it is approved. They have lots of these types of ordinances, including on cell towers, setbacks and commercial developments. Given that people’s land values will decrease, their views of nature will be negatively impacted and pesticide use ill increase dramatically, I think its a prudent discussion to have. I applaud the planning and selectboards for bringing it to the people- they are very busy and frankly it would have been easier not to. No matter which way the town votes its good process- thank you New Sharon.

    PS: CMP/Avangrid/Iberdola have one concern- making money. It’s our jobs as citizens to think the other pieces through.

  7. It is interesting to see the “don’t tread on me” conservatives joining forces with the liberal “NIBYs” to oppose the CMP corridor project. Has anyone considered the private property rights at issue if CMP can be prevented from using land that it owns (or has a legal right of way) despite complying with environmental and land use regulations. Short of the state of Maine using it’s power of eminent domain in a legal confiscation process, much of the sound and fury opposing this transmission line project seeks to violate property rights protected by the Constitution.

  8. History Buff nailed it. Eminent domain and a property tax stand point. Someday people will understand the government is only trying to control us. Hint we had a revolution war over taxation and disarmament. Stop voting for these idiots.

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