The wording of a referendum question that will appear on the Nov. 2 ballot, prompted by opponents of the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line, has been approved by Maine’s secretary of state.

The wording of the citizens’ initiative question, titled “An Act To Require Legislative Approval of Certain Transmission Lines, Require Legislative Approval of Certain Transmission Lines and Facilities and Other Projects on Public Reserved Lands and Prohibit the Construction of Certain Transmission Lines in the Upper Kennebec Region,” is now finalized, according to Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.

The referendum would require legislative approval for any electrical power line project that exceeds 50 miles and would impose a prohibition on such a project in the Upper Kennebec Valley.

It reads: “Do you want to ban the construction of high-impact electric transmission lines in the Upper Kennebec Region and to require the Legislature to approve all other such projects anywhere in Maine, both retroactively to 2020, and to require the Legislature, retroactively to 2014, to approve by a two-thirds vote such projects using public land?”

Bellows said her office received 119 comments on the proposed question during a 30-day public comment period.


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