The Maine Supreme Judicial Court delivered a victory on Tuesday  for advocates of a transmission line that would connect renewable hydropower supply in Quebec with demand in New England.

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Fifty-nine percent of Maine voters had effectively voted down the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project via a referendum dubbed Question 1 in November 2021. However, the state’s high court ruled parts of the referendum – which would have retroactively applied a ban on high-impact transmission lines in Maine’s Upper Kennebec Region, thereby killing the project – to be unconstitutional.

The unanimous court ruling “is a victory for clean energy expansion, transmission development, and decarbonization efforts in Maine, New England and across the country,” said Avangrid Inc.,...