• By December 2, 2024, Grain Belt shall show that through a combination of the following, a majority of the easements necessary to build the Kansas portion of the Project: (1) have been executed, (2) are demonstrably being negotiated, or (3) are subject to proceedings in state court. Alternatively, Grain Belt must show it has obtained financing for the complete Project. If Grain Belt is unable to meet the required percentage of easements or obtain financing, it is subject to sanctions or shall file a new transmission line siting permit application under K.S.A. 66-1, 178.
  
  
• By December 2, 2026, the percentage of easements necessary to build the Kansas portion of the Project escalates. If Grain Belt is unable to meet the required percentage of easements or obtain financing, it is subject to increased sanctions or shall file a new transmission line siting permit application under K.S.A. 66-1,178.
  
• By December 2, 2028, the percentage of easements necessary to build the Kansas portion of the Project escalates. If Grain Belt is unable to meet the required percentage of easements or obtain financing, Grain Belt must either: (1) shall file a new transmission line siting permit application under K.S.A. 66-1,178; or (b) abandon the Project and allow all easements to revert to the landowners.
  

CMP Corridor Opponents Launch Citizens Initiative
Opponents of Central Maine Power's transmission corridor have filed an application with the Secretary of State to launch a statewide ballot initiative to stop the controversial project.
Tom Saviello , the citizen initiator of the effort, turned in bill language that would revoke the project's deeply unpopular permit approval from Maine's top energy regulator, the Public Utilities Commission. Revoking this permit, called a certificate of public convenience and necessity, would reflect the clear wishes of the majority of Mainers, who do not want the corridor to be built.
"CMP's corridor has drawn strong opposition from most Mainers," Saviello said. "Allowing Mainers to vote to block this project is only fair. We have to consider that nearly 25 towns have already voted to oppose the project, polling shows overwhelming opposition to the project, and CMP's awful scandals continue to get worse. Add to that the fact that Augusta has failed to listen to the clear voice of the people, and it's time for Mainers to take this matter into their own hands. We began the citizen's initiative process so this project will
get stopped in its tracks. Western Maine is too valuable to destroy."
Saviello is a former state representative and state senator from Franklin County, an area that would be heavily affected by CMP's corridor.
Sandi Howard, the director of Say NO to NECEC, will join Saviello in heading up the effort. Say NO to NECEC is a large grassroots organization that formed in opposition to the corridor.
"This corridor is bad for just about everyone," Howard said. "It's only good for a very select few. Augusta politicians and the state agencies who are supposed to protect Maine have failed, so we have to take this effort into our own hands. The citizen's initiative process is an enormous undertaking, but we have more than 20 thousand motivated Mainers who have signed up to help. They've called legislators, lobbied their elected officials, shown up at town meetings, and have even weighed in with Maine's energy and environmental regulators. The work they've done so far is already the broadest and most impressive exercise in direct democracy this state has seen in the modern era, and we know that Mainers are ready to get to work on this next step. We also know that CMP will use every legal trick, every lobbyist they can buy, and all of their influence in Augusta to push for their billion-dollar project, all while neglecting and overcharging their customers. This corridor is bad for Maine, and we don't trust CMP to build it."
The draft language will be considered by the Secretary of State's office in the coming days. Once the Secretary of State clears the language, corridor opponents will use their volunteer network to begin collecting petition signatures from Mainers. See draft language below.
An Act to Reject the New England Clean Energy Connect Transmission Project
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. Amend Order. Within 30 days of the effective date of this legislation and pursuant to its authority under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, section 1321, the Public Utilities Commission shall amend the “Order Granting Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and Approving Stipulation” entered by the Public Utilities Commission on May 3, 2019 in Docket No. 2017‑00232 for the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission project. The amended order shall find that the construction and operation of the NECEC transmission project is not in the public interest that there is not a public need for the NECEC transmission project. There not being a public need, the amended order shall deny the request for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the NECEC.

According to PSC records dating back to the 1970s, the commission has never rejected a utility application to build a transmission line.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

Apex Clean Energy Vice President of Public Affairs Dahvi Wilson said it’s no longer simply a matter of getting landowners to sign off on projects. Now, Wilson said, utilities need to secure public support.
“We’re increasingly before state [and] local governments, and we’re facing opponents that are very sincerely concerned about what’s coming to their communities but also misguided,” Wilson said.
Utilities are increasingly facing the deliberate spread of misinformation online about proposed projects, she said. “We’re in a lot of debate right now over what’s true.”
Wilson said regulators must now ascertain whether data are scientifically rigorous or simply pulled from a questionable webpage.

North Dakota Indian Affairs Commissioner Scott Davis, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, led negotiations with the Dakota Access Pipeline over a two-year period. He described how he was constantly afraid of a protester’s death and listening to helicopters conducting crowd control near his home.
“Don’t underestimate the power of my people. You can tell them not to do it, and they’re going to do it,” Davis said. “Quite honestly, government hasn’t treated us very well in the decades of our existence.”
Davis said “old-fashioned” face-to-face discussions with tribal or community leaders is the best approach to introducing projects with communities, native or not. Davis also warned that treaties protect tribal land.

“[For] a lot of you that have tribes in your states, treaties are the law of the land. They’re in the Constitution. … Understanding tribes, where they’re coming from, is so important,” Davis said. “I think in this world of progress, progress, progress, what drives us — what pushes the gas pedal of progress — is trust. If you’re just rubber-stamping [energy infrastructure projects], you will have an issue.”

Wilson said the wind industry, which previously tended to submit projects quietly, hoping for little public notice, is now more transparent. She also agreed that it’s imperative for utilities to spend face-to-face time in a community.
“If the people that are fighting our projects are much more liked in the community, the community is going to believe them over us,” Wilson advised.
However, she said, it’s still a “hard sell” to convince many utilities to spend money to embed company representatives in a community to foster trust.

Environmental Law & Policy Center Senior Attorney Brad Klein said it’s generally good practice for a utility to perform a full environmental impact analysis early in the process and thoroughly investigate alternatives to a large energy infrastructure project.

“I don’t think alternatives are appropriate in all cases, but they should be fully considered up front,” Klein said. Decisions should be made based on “full and fair information,” he said, which should contemplate new technologies, battery storage and collections of distributed resources.

Klein also acknowledged that there will be environmental trade-offs with any large infrastructure project. But utilities and regulators shouldn’t insult groups of concerned citizens, he said.
“Don’t dismiss local communities as NIMBYs [‘not in my backyard’]. That’s insulting,” Klein said. “When we lose the public’s trust, you lose the larger fight.”

What you want
Baby, I got it
What you need
Do you know I got it?

On August 2, 2019, the Verde Transmission Project notified the United States Bureau of Land Management and the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs that the Project would not be moving forward and that the Project was officially requesting to withdraw its application for right-of-way approval from these agencies.

Jefferson County Commission Chair Betsy Barfield was sharper in her opposition to the project.

“This is not an ask. This is ‘we’re tired of messing with you and this is what you need to do,’” she said in an interview. “The utilities, they really are the big gorilla and they’re the ones that think they can run roughshod over everybody. NextEra has not been a good community partner at all.”

Jefferson Commissioner Walker was there but said by that time the company was already far along in developing its plan without input from local officials. He’s driven his proposed route with NextEra's Bryant.

“I showed him the exact route but getting information from them is hard to do. I think they want to take the path of least resistance,” Walker said. “They should have communicated with every county along the way and got our input on it.”

Property taxes associated with it could top $17 million in both counties over 30 years, with as much as $960,000 accrued in the first year. During the line's construction, 200 local jobs will be created and business to hotels, restaurants and stores could see an uptick.

NextEra has said the Highway 27 route was not viable because it would require co-locating with Duke Energy, a major utility competitor, and working within Florida Department of Transportation easement restrictions. A path completely down I-10 wasn’t workable because of existing development on private property near Tallahassee.
Barfield said after being told by Tim Bryant, NextEra’s senior manager of external affairs and new development, FDOT had denied their request to use Highway 27, she spoke with agency officials.
“They never told NextEra no, that they couldn’t do that,” she said. “Frankly, I don’t like people lying to us. To straight up lie? That’s just unprofessional and unethical." 

FDOT spokesman Ian Satter confirmed NextEra has not approached the agency with plans to consider Highway 27.
“Gulf Power has contacted our department to make us aware they will submit permits to cross state roads,” Satter said.

Eversource, in a statement, said it was “deeply disappointed” with the decision.
“We will closely review the Supreme Court’s decision and evaluate all potential options for moving forward. It’s clear that the need for new energy sources in New England is greater than ever, and we remain focused on innovative solutions that will lower costs for our customers, improve reliability and advance clean energy.”

Eversource spent $249 million on Northern Pass through September 2017, including engineering, property purchases, attorney fees and application fees. Eversource was funding the construction through borrowing and stockholder equity.