HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A new fight has emerged over efforts to shift New England from oil and coal to lower-cost natural gas.
Plans by New England’s governors and energy officials to expand natural gas have drawn battles among energy companies, environmentalists and local and state officials.
Now, a Portland, Maine, lawyer who represents a pipeline company, manufacturers and two organized labor groups is accusing environmental advocates of abandoning their early support for cleaner energy and trying to block pipeline projects.
Anthony Buxton has taken his complaint about the Conservation Law Foundation to Maine utility regulators.
The environmental group says it urged expanding natural gas in the late 1990s and early 2000s as an alternative to oil- and coal-fired plants. It now says the argument is about whether ratepayers should subsidize gas pipeline construction.
