p148 New England Clean Energy Connect: Electric Power Transmission Conflict in Maine
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This study examines conflicts surrounding a proposed 145-mile corridor and transmission line through economically stressed west central Maine to transport Canadian hydro-produced power to markets on the New England grid. Massachusetts represents nearly half that market and in 2016 the state enacted legislation to reduce its dependency on fossil-fuel produced electrical energy. Central Maine Power Company, a Spanish-owned firm, was awarded a contract to build the line. The proposed project, New England Clean Energy Connect, is facing substantial opposition from the fossil fuel industry, selected environmental groups, second homeowners and some recreational interests. Proponents are government leaders who seek expanded property tax sources, labor unions because of construction jobs, electric rate payers, potential broadband users, and those that think the project will reduce fossil fuel use and slow climate change. Maine Governor Janet Mills expressed support and much public debate surrounded the proposal. The project has obtained all the required state and federal permits. Opposition calling for a state-wide referendum on the issue submitted the required number of petition signatures to force a vote. The Maine Supreme Court declared the referendum question unconstitutional, thus, preventing it from appearing on a 2020 ballot. A second referendum drive is underway for the November 2021 ballot. Project opponents filed a lawsuit to overturn a permit associated with the new right-of-way section of the line. A federal injunction is currently prohibiting construction in that new section and the case is in court. In February 2021 construction on the corridor began. Much remains unresolved, and it is likely the courts will continue to play a major role in the battle. This study illustrates the struggle to balance local and regional needs in a New England context and illuminates the broader global dynamics of a changing energy geography.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.004 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.033 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".