CHESTERVILLE — A forum is scheduled for Thursday evening in Chesterville to discuss Central Maine Power’s proposed New England Clean Energy Connect project.

The meeting, set to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Office on Dutch Gap Road, will be followed by a special town meeting to reconsider the Board of Selectmen’s support of the $1 billion project.

Selectmen wrote a letter in 2017 endorsing the project.

On June 27, Megan Heikkinen, a resident of Chesterville, gave the board petitions signed by 121 residents asking that selectmen rescind their support of the proposed 145-mile transmission line.

State law requires a petition signed by more than 10% of the residents who voted in the previous gubernatorial election be considered for action. Ten percent would be 65.

The NECEC line would deliver hydropower from Hydro-Québec to Massachusetts, via a transmission line through Franklin, Somerset and Androscoggin counties. The line through Maine would extend from Beattie Township on the Canadian border to a power station in Lewiston, for ultimate connection to the New England power grid.

The project would include 53.5 miles of new line and would provide up to 1,200 megawatts of electricity via a high-voltage, direct-current line.

Chesterville Town Clerk Pamela Griswold said a small section of the proposed transmission line would cross the northwest corner of town, along Route 156.

If Chesterville voters oppose the project, they will also decide whether selectmen should submit a letter of opposition to CMP, NECEC, the Maine Public Utilities Commission, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Maine Land Use Planning Commission.

 

 

 

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