By Michael Shepherd - July 20, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta. There are 111 days until Maine's November elections.

What we're watching today

A zombie permit is at the center of a battle between Maine's biggest utility and its foes as both sides scramble for failsafes. Here's my tightest one-sentence summary of where the Central Maine Power Co. corridor stands after a long saga: After Maine voters rejected it in November, a key state permit was suspended for the $1 billion hydropower project whose ultimate fate is now tied up in two cases awaiting rulings from Maine's high court.

This week, we are getting a blast from the past. A 2020 appeal of that aforementioned permit is just now going to hearings before the Maine Board of Environmental Protection. Corridor foes rallied outside the Augusta Civic Center this morning before meetings set to run through Thursday morning. Watch it.

While that permit from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is suspended now, that was because of the referendum and not for the reasons that opponents cited in 2020. The chair of the state board considering the appeal has already said it will not consider the two court challenges to the anti-corridor referendum and a public lease granted for the project, as well as the department's suspension of the permit. Board staff have recommended keeping the permit in effect as it was with some relatively small changes.

It makes for a strange set of circumstances, resulting in a 2022 hearing on a permit suspended in 2021 based on 2020 facts. Both that and the delays have angered corridor opponents, who have recently accused the state board of mishandling the project. Former state Sen. Tom Saviello, a Wilton selectman and anti-corridor organizer, said in a recent Bangor Daily News Op-Ed that board members should "step up to demand a public hearing on the whole record and not an outdated appeal."

This week's hearings are about backup options. If CMP and its allies prevail here and in court, they would be able to resume construction. Foes are trying to block the permit in case they do not succeed in court. But there are no sure outcomes there. It remains possible that the high court could send elements of the cases back to lower courts for reconsideration.

At this point, delays are working against corridor backers with an end-of-2023 deadline to complete the project. Massachusetts is already examining alternatives to the corridor that it commissioned, with backup options including a proposed line through Aroostook County that so far lacks the political opposition that the western Maine project has carried. Time means money. That is why all fronts of this battle matter greatly right now.

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News and notes

A Maine congressman is one reason House Democrats don't yet have the votes to pass an assault weapons ban.

— Rep. Jared Golden of Maine's 2nd District is one of two Democrats who have committed to opposing the bill, Politico reported. Another half-dozen are uncommitted, leaving the party shy of the 216 votes they need to pass a bill that has virtually no chance of getting through the Senate.

— Gun politics are one of the interesting dynamics of Golden's November race with former Rep. Bruce Poliquin in a rematch of their 2018 campaign that also features independent Tiffany Bond. Golden has resisted Democratic gun control efforts after Poliquin was endorsed by the National Rifle Association and the gun-rights Sportsman's Alliance of Maine during that race.

— However, the second-term congressman supported a bipartisan gun, mental health and school safety bill that was also backed by Sen. Susan Collins and the sportsman's alliance but opposed by Poliquin and the NRA.

Maine's secretary of state is cutting the ribbon on a new online voter registration system on Wednesday.

— Secretary of State Shenna Bellows will hold ribbon-cutting ceremonies in Scarborough on Wednesday and in Bangor and Caribou on Thursday for a new automatic voter registration system enacted by the Democratic-led Legislature in 2019. It went online at the end of June and is centered on Bureau of Motor Vehicles offices, where Mainers will be able to register or change parties.

— It is one of a handful of voting changes enacted under Gov. Janet Mills, including a switch to ranked-choice voting in presidential elections. Bellows, a Democrat, plans to implement online voter registration by 2024.

— Voting access will be a major issue in the November gubernatorial campaign. Former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican running against the Democratic incumbent, has said he will push for a voter ID law.

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What we're reading

— Progressives want to put a sweeping paid family and medical leave referendum on Maine's 2023 ballot in a move that will pressure lawmakers on the issue before and after the November election.

— Police dogs are not trained to detect fentanyl, making for another example of how the deadly drug is challenging police.

— Maine is on its way to surpassing a modern homicide record in 2022, with 17 so far in just over six months after two weekend killings.

— Republican legislative candidate John Linnehan is behind an effort to get the Ellsworth City Council to discuss Agenda 21, a United Nations sustainability effort that has become the subject of a right-wing conspiracy theory. Linnehan has embraced that theory, calling it “part of a one-world plan to defeat America.”

— Workers accused Chipotle of union-busting after the company closed an Augusta location that had been the first for the chain in the U.S. to file for union recognition.

— The Maine county that most resembles the U.S. is its youngest and most diverse.

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Photo of the day

Dr. Aji Djamali (left), chair of the department of medicine at Maine Medical Center, talks with kidney recipient John Jartz of Wisconsin on the day of transplant surgery. Djamali, who treated Jartz for two years, found out he was a near-perfect match for Jartz before moving to Maine for his new job and donated a kidney recently. (Courtesy of UW Health)

📷 Lead photo: Activists celebrate at a Farmington party after Maine voters rejected Central Maine Power's proposed hydropower corridor on Nov. 2, 2021. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

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