The Boston Globe reports that the cost of the critically important New England Clean Energy Connect project increased by over 50 percent to 1.5 billion dollars during the three years Avangrid, the project developer, battled NIMBYs in Maine.   That delay was on top of the several years it took to get all of the federal and state permits the project needs.  The New England Clean Energy Connect project, which will convey hydroelectric power from Canada, is essential to Massachusetts meeting its Green House Gas reduction goals.

After Avangrid had spent almost a half billion dollars on the project, the voters of Maine were given the opportunity to vote on whether or not the project should have been allowed to proceed.  Approximately one in four registered Maine voters said no but that was good enough to stop the project in its tracks while Avangrid and the NIMBYs went to court.

Since then, the project has been the subject of two decisions by the Maine Supreme Court and one trial.  As anyone might have predicted, the result of all of this litigation was a complete defeat of the NIMBYs and now the project is back on track.  Work in my four year home of Lewiston is scheduled to begin next week.

And, surprising no one, it seems those of us who are customers of the three electric utilities that are going to be the Project's customers are going to foot the dramatically increased bill caused by the Maine NIMBYs' machinations.  The Globe reports that the Massachusetts Governor, Senate and House are on the verge of allowing Avangrid to pass those costs along to ratepayers.

Representative Jeff Roy, co-chairman of the House energy and telecom committee, is absolutely correct that our elected leaders don't have much of a choice.  If Avangrid couldn't recover those costs, it might not pick up where it left off in 2021.  One doesn't need to look any further than Avangrid's former (and likely future) Commonwealth Wind project for proof of that proposition.

But we can do something to keep this from happening again and again.  While it is hard to believe that anyone isn't laser focused on expediting our transition to renewable energy this summer, perhaps those folks might be more concerned about paying more than they should for electricity because of the drag NIMBYs add to the development of energy infrastructure.  The New England Clean Energy Connect story should be a clarion call for our Federal and State Governments to make our transition to renewable energy easier, including by streamlining the permitting of energy infrastructure projects and then limiting the capacity of NIMBYs to sue over the permits that are issued.  We're running out of time.

Meanwhile, Senator Mike Barrett, the other co-chairman of the energy committee, said he remains hopeful that Massachusetts ratepayers “won’t be the only parties on the hook for delays caused by Maine voters” and that other New England states might be interested in buying some of this clean power, particularly given the growing commitment to regional cooperation on energy issues.

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Barrett concedes it’s an unfortunate extra burden for Massachusetts.

“It was NIMBYism on a grand scale,” Barrett said of the Maine vote. “Massachusetts ratepayers are going to have to pay for the irresponsibility of their Maine neighbors. That is unavoidable and true. I don’t know how else you get the line built. Avangrid will not go forward if they are saddled with a huge loss, and neither will the utilities.”