After two Maine courts dismissed a local environmental group’s nuisance complaint against Central Maine Power, plaintiffs moved Friday to bring their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a press release from the organization.
Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, a Richmond-based non-profit, filed a petition to a writ of certification. This is the first step in appealing to the Supreme Court. According to Ed Friedman, Chairman of Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, this request is a last resort.
Friedman said that this is the next step in our legal journey. Our attorney has worked on many cases over the years and mentioned that this was probably the first case he encountered that he believed had the potential to be worthy of the US Supreme Court.
According to William Most, who represents Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, questions about federalism as well as the power of administrative agents are at the center of the cases.
Friedman and his group protest the installation of flashing lights and radar systems by Central Maine Power on two electric towers in Bath and Woolwich, near the Chops Passage, around 2018. According to court documents, the system’s 10 lights flash 60 times per hour when activated. This creates a strobe effect that can be seen over nearly 4,000 miles.
Friends of Merrymeeting Bay have been denied flashing lights by local zoning codes. However, Maine courts have twice ruled against them since their first suit was filed in July 2020. Both the Maine Business Consumer Court (Maine Supreme Court) and the Maine Supreme Court ruled that local zoning laws were invalidated by non-binding guidance issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, which recommended the installation a lighting system to alert planes to the towers.
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Plaintiffs argue that allowing even non-binding suggestions from federal agencies overstate state law could reduce power from the state and local government.
If the reasoning of the Maine courts’ rulings is extended to other areas, it could impact the state’s ability to regulate broad swathes of activity, such as food safety, traffic enforcement, and recreational fishing, said Most, who is based in New Orleans. That is because federal agencies make recommendations about all those topics, and under the logic of the courts’ decisions, that could prevent the state from being involved.
Central Maine Power spokespeople declined to comment, but they argued that the FAA required the light system.
Friends of Merrymeeting Bays may petition for a writ of certification to move the Woolwich dispute to Washington. However, there is fierce competition for Supreme Court attention, according to Dmitry Bam Provost and Professor at University of Maine School of Law.
Bam wrote in an e-mail that the Court receives many petitions each year. The Court hears only 70 cases per year. The chances of the petition being granted is very slim.
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