NextEra Is Blocking a Major New Clean Power Transmission Project
The clean electricity giant is moving to squelch competition at the expense of the energy transition.
Workers place stakes to mark land for new utility poles on a segment of the New England Clean Energy Connect near Bingham, Maine.
Photographer: Robert F. Bukaty/APA major new transmission line intended to pipe carbon-free hydropower from Canada into the U.S. Northeast has met a powerful opponent: the world’s largest provider of wind and solar energy.
The 145-mile (233-kilometer), nearly $1 billion transmission line, known as New England Clean Energy Connect, broke ground in February after nearly three years of review by regulators. If completed, it would be able to import 1.2 gigawatts of electricity from the Canadian utility Hydro-Quebec. That’s enough to reduce carbon emissions in the region by 3.6 million metric tons a year, according to the project’s developer, Avangrid Inc., or about 12% compared to 2019 levels.