Springfield judge tosses antitrust claims in 8-year fight over 146-mile, $1.5 billion power line project through Maine
SPRINGFIELD — Builders of a $1.5 billion power line through Maine wilderness can't use the Sherman Antitrust Act to fight back against the rival it says delayed construction and boosted costs by 30%.
The 146-mile New England Clean Energy Connect project will bring 1,200 megawatts of clean Canadian hydroelectricity to New England ratepayers over 20 years, according to a February news release issued by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. The line, already under construction, will stabilize energy prices.
It is expected to be completed in 2026.
The federal court building in Springfield.
But the project, first set in motion by the Massachusetts legislature in 2017, was tied up in court and by public referenda in Maine for years.
This week, U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni ruled that federal antitrust laws don't apply while letting state-level claims stand. Neither side has filed a legal response, according to the court docket. And neither side returned calls or emails Tuesday.
The suit was filed in federal court here in 2024 by the company building New England Clean Energy Connect, Avangrid Inc., through its subsidiary Central Maine Power Co. against defendant NextEra Energy and its subsidiary NextEra Energy Seabrook.
In his ruling, Mastroianni begins by explaining that the lawsuit is an attempt by Avangrid, builder of New England Clean Energy Connect, to shift the cost of regulatory friction associated with construction to competitors whose actions delayed the project: NextEra Energy.
Published accounts say NextEra was trying to protect its market share in New England by keeping Hydro-Quebec out of the market.
NextEra was an unsuccessful bidder in the 208 competitions for the power transmission project.
Avangrid lays out the "friction" including other court cases and it accuses NextEra of misleading Maine voters in two referendums.
Avangrid and New England Clean Energy Connect also alleged that NextEra physically blocked it from attaching to the power grid by allowing the breaker protecting NextEra's Seabrook nuclear power plant to age and then not creating a new breaker that would allow Avangrid to hook in.
ISO New England, which runs the regional power grid, could not allow any significant new power source project to connect to the grid unless and until NextEra upgraded the breaker, according to the suit.
ISO New England is based in Holyoke, and that is the reason the case was filed in Springfield's federal courthouse, according to court papers.
The final step required for interconnection of power lines, the breaker replacement at the Seabrook plant, was not completed until November 2024.
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