After lengthy (and I do mean lengthy) deliberations about public access, the Maine Board of Environmental Protection voted unanimously today to :
 
(1)     Deny Save Our Sebasticook’s request for a technical hearing.
(2)     Deny SOS’s appeal of the permit issued by DEP
(3)     Endorse in full the denial order drafted by the DEP
 
This is good news, and it means FPL now has all state and federal permits required to remove the dam.
 
Remaining hurdles:
 
(1)     Town permits (which FPL can now apply for, since the other permits are pre-requisites)
(2)     The state court challenge to the Kennebec Agreement (FPL and the State have requested a summary finding, which rests with the judge)
(3)     The appeal to Federal court regarding FERC’s denial of the SOS appeal.  (SOS’s filing is due in March, with filings by other parties to follow.)
 
No word yet on whether SOS will appeal the BEP finding  to court, although they don’t have much in the way of grounds to do so.
 

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