According to Leah Stokes, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has researched utility companies’ resistance to climate policies, this demonstrates that these companies are not truly aligned with the climate movement or committed to making progress towards addressing climate change. Instead, they act as monopolies, obstructing progress and prioritizing their own profits like a troll guarding a bridge.

NextEra representative Chris McGrath justified their stance against the line, stating that no other company has been as influential in promoting the shift towards renewable energy or has made as many investments in the country’s power infrastructure in the last ten years.

However, he contended that new transmission projects should prioritize domestic energy usage. The company has also stated in legal documents that the line may not fulfill its proposed environmental advantages. This aligns with concerns voiced by environmental organizations regarding the potential effects of the power line on forests and rivers.

In a statement, McGrath stated that our worries regarding the mentioned transmission line were based on our belief that any newly built transmission lines in the United States should prioritize supporting power generation from both new and existing sources of clean energy.

NextEra is the leading company in the country for producing renewable electricity, with a fleet of wind and solar farms. They have constructed the biggest utility-scale solar project in New England, a 77-megawatt facility in Maine that can provide energy for approximately 15,000 households. The company’s leaders have expressed their support for addressing climate change, applauding the approval of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and advocating for increased collaboration between businesses and governments during climate discussions held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates last year.

However, the company has a past of protecting its territory against other sustainable energy efforts during a period of unprecedentedly high global temperatures. NextEra’s efforts in New England mirror this trend.

The battle against incentives for rooftop solar power

The largest utility in the country is operated by this company in Florida.

New England Clean Energy Connect is a power line in the New England region that has the potential to compete with NextEra’s power plant fleet.

Fought battles and lost battles

The

The distance of the transmission line passing through Maine is 145 miles.

The power from dams in Quebec would be transmitted from the Canadian border to a substation in the southern part of the state, and then injected into New England’s electric system.

The project has caused a divide among environmentalists, with some supporting it as a necessary backup for wind and solar energy, while others express concern about the potential environmental harm of cutting down trees and constructing dams.

The rivalry between power companies has been especially fierce, with no clear winner emerging.

In 2018, Massachusetts granted a 20-year agreement to two developers, Avangrid and Hydro-Québec, which marked the start of the project. This contract solidified the project as a major energy source in the region, generating enough electricity to fulfill approximately 7% of the yearly demand.

NextEra quickly joined the battle.

where NextEra lost.

In Maine, it contested the proposal by asserting that the regulators did not take into account its effects on renewable energy initiatives and state forests. However, it also faced defeat in this matter.

When the grid operator for New England found that a circuit breaker at Seabrook needed to be improved to handle the addition of hydropower, NextEra requested that the federal regulators guarantee compensation for the time lost during the upgrade. In reply, FERC stated that Avangrid must cover the cost of the upgrade but not the lost profits. NextEra is currently challenging this ruling in a federal court.

According to former FERC Chair Pat Wood III’s adviser, grid consultant Alison Silverstein, NextEra has a track record of attempting to protect its power plants from competition. However, this goes against Massachusetts’ climate objectives as the state has instructed its utilities to purchase significant quantities of hydropower to support renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

Silverstein stated that NextEra is willing to obstruct the state’s public purpose and will.

‘Disturbing evidence’

In November, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices imposed penalties on two companies affiliated with the firm. According to documents and statements from the ethics committee, these organizations were instructed by consultants hired by NextEra to oppose the construction of the line.

One of the groups, Alpine Initiatives, failed to register as a political action committee before making a $150,000 contribution to the Maine Democratic Party, a move that ethics officials said masked the source of payment from the public. The contribution was an attempt to ingratiate the consultants to Democratic officials as they looked for allies in their fight against the power line,
the commission said. As part of a consent agreement, officials with Alpine Initiatives agreed to pay a $160,000 fine in exchange for not having to admit guilt.

The regulatory agency imposed a penalty of $50,000 on Stop the Corridor, a separate organization overseen by consultants hired by NextEra. This was due to their failure to register as a committee for the purpose of collecting signatures to include a measure on the 2020 ballot that aimed to prevent the construction of a new line. Stop the Corridor also agreed to a consent decree, which allowed them to avoid admitting wrongdoing.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court prevented the ballot question from proceeding. However, the next year, those against the project collected sufficient signatures to include another question on the ballot that aimed to halt the project.

NextEra spent more than $20 million to support this question, while Avangrid and Hydro-Québec, the Canadian utility that would send power to New England, put up more than $50 million in an attempt to defeat it. The question ultimately passed with the support of nearly two-thirds of voters, temporarily halting construction. Maine’s highest court later invalidated the result.

It was stated that the customer could potentially suffer damage to their reputation if the consent agreement revealed their identity.

According to commission records, Paul McDonald, an attorney at Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson, stated that the client is not being charged with any illegal actions in this case and is not at risk of being held accountable. It was also revealed that Bernstein Shur played a role in the formation and operation of Stop the Corridor.

During the inquiry from Republican Commissioner David Hastings III, McDonald admitted that the client was listed in the campaign finance report linked to the Stop the Corridor agreement. Hastings then inquired if this same client was involved in the Alpine Initiatives case, to which McDonald confirmed that it was.

Hastings emphasized the importance of identifying the client, at minimum in exhibit B, in the campaign finance report.

“NextEra Energy did not provide a response to an inquiry inquiring about their status as the client. Rather, the company released a statement reiterating the conditions outlined in the consent agreement.”

According to NextEra Energy Resources spokesperson McGrath, our company was not involved in the consent agreements approved by the Maine Ethics Commission and these agreements do not determine that we committed any wrongdoing or failed to report any activity.

Avangrid presented a contrasting perspective. In a statement to POLITICO’s E&E News, the utility, headquartered in Connecticut, asserted that the ethics commission’s conclusions “present clear and concerning proof that NextEra engaged in underhanded and dishonest behavior in order to eliminate competition and prioritize their own financial gain over the well-being of New England residents and businesses.”

‘Subverting the whole plan’

NextEra, valued at $117 billion on the stock market, aims to achieve “true zero” emissions by eliminating carbon dioxide pollution from its operations by 2045.

However, experts suggest that NextEra’s battle against the transmission line bears similarities to their resistance against rooftop solar in Florida. According to a collaborative investigation by The Guardian and Floodlight, a lobbyist for NextEra’s subsidiary, Florida Power and Light, had a significant role in drafting a bill that aimed to dismantle the state’s rooftop solar sector. The legislation was supported by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.vetoed the bill.

The project claimed it would reduce emissions as promised, by stating that the agreement did not ensure extra imports of hydropower beyond what Hydro-Québec already supplies to New England. However, both the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and the state Supreme Judicial Court dismissed this argument.

Persuading Democrats

The documents from the Maine ethics commission reveal the efforts of NextEra’s political advisors to sway public perception regarding the power line project.

(ACCCE)

The organization known as the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). main supporters, Representative Henry A. Waxman, called it “a great start”

During the 2009 discussion in Congress about cap and trade, Representative Henry A. Waxman, a key proponent, described it as “a promising beginning.”contractors forged letters to lawmakers.

Hawthorn sought the assistance of a Maine-based law firm, Bernstein Shur, to spearhead the effort against the transmission line. In April 2018, Bernstein Shur and another political consulting firm in Maine (whose name was not disclosed in the agreement) formed Stop the Corridor, coinciding with Massachusetts’ decision to grant a 20-year power contract to the line’s developers.

According to the ethics commission, Stop the Corridor organized for opponents to participate in local meetings, attempted to influence the public’s views through advertisements, and collaborated with other organizations to create remarks for state and federal agencies.

During a conversation with the Atlantic Council, Rebecca Kujawa, the CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, praised the strides made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in the United States. However, she acknowledged that the majority of the simple solutions have already been implemented and urged governments and businesses to collaborate in implementing more significant emission reductions.

“Our aim at COP is to have a positive impact on government policy, other businesses, and stakeholders who have a role to play, in order to foster meaningful collaboration,” stated Kujawa. “No one company or industry alone can achieve our objectives.”

This narrative is also featured in Energywire.