skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Public to Weigh in on CMP Transmission Line

play audio
Play

Tuesday, October 16, 2018   

AUGUSTA, Maine — On Wednesday, the public will have a chance to speak out about a proposed power transmission line that would run through Maine to carry power from Canada to Massachusetts.

The Public Utilities Commission is holding a public hearing on Central Maine Power's proposal to build the 145-mile transmission line. But critics say the project would have significant negative impacts on Maine's environment while providing virtually no benefit to the state.

According to Dylan Voorhees, climate and clean-energy director with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the transmission line would pose a threat to the state's tourism industry and to wildlife, especially in norther areas of the state.

"This project includes more than 50 miles of brand new transmission corridor crossing literally hundreds of bodies of water and fragmenting habitat for wildlife,” Voorhees said.

Proponents of the project say it would help reduce climate change by making hydroelectric power, a renewable resource, available to the Massachusetts power grid.

But Voorhees argued the transmission line would simply be diverting power that's already being generated from one market to another. He said to reduce carbon emissions, the project would need to build new renewable energy generation sites.

"They might be wind, solar, they might even be hydro,” Voorhees said. “That generation needs to be constructed in order to actually reduce the amount of carbon pollution going into the atmosphere."

The Public Utilities Commission is expected to decide by the end of the year whether or not it will approve the transmission line, but that's not the end of the process.

Voorhees pointed out that at least two other state agencies, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Land Use Planning Commission, also have to approve the project.

"Those processes have really hardly begun, and they won't likely have public hearings until into 2019,” he said. “So, there's still quite a lot more process and opportunity for the public to weigh in."

Earlier this year, a similar proposal to build a transmission line from Quebec to Massachusetts was rejected by state regulators in New Hampshire.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


South Dakota ranks 49th in the country for its contribution to indigent legal defense costs, according to a 2023 report from the Indigent Legal Services Task Force. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…

Social Issues

play sound

This year's high school graduates will be eligible for 14,000 new scholarships offered through Opportunity Next Colorado, a $21 million investment …

The new law will apply only to future sales of Indiana farmland. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

Environment

play sound

Traffic deaths are trending higher in Minnesota this year after a decline the previous year. Groups pushing for safer roads are convinced a small …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021