Richard Valdmanis, Nichola Bride

BINGHAM, Maine (Reuters] – Evelyn Beane, Bruce Beane, love the wilderness surrounding their tiny Maine town, Kennebec River. The area is surrounded miles by mountains and forested in birch, maple, pine.

Developers arrived in New England a few years back to ask for their support for a transmission project that would run through the woods and bring Canadian hydropower to New England. They said no.

“This is where people come to get away from power lines,” said Evelyn, 65, standing on the porch of the couple’s home as logging trucks, pickups, and hunters on ATVs passed along the road. “We don’t want it to turn into everywhere else.”

The Beanes were among the more than 230,000 Mainers who voted to reject the 145-mile (233 km) New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) project in a referendum this week, bringing an apparent end to a years-long battle over the 1,200-megawatt line that had pitted clean energy advocates against locals seeking to preserve the state’s woodlands.

The fate of the project – billed by its proponents as part of the solution to climate change https://www.reuters.com/business/cop – reflects the difficulty faced by developers nationwide in siting new transmission lines, many more of which must be built to modernize creaking grid systems and connect far-flung renewable energy sources.

It seems that no one wants the projects located near these areas.

“If this type of project can’t get through, good luck getting others through,” Dennis Arriola, CEO of energy services and delivery company Avangrid (NYSE:) Inc, which controls the project, said in an interview earlier this year.

That is a problem for the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, which has made modernizing the nation’s electric transmission systems a key element of its plan to decarbonize the U.S. power sector by 2035. In its White House infrastructure package, Congress is currently debating it has allocated billions of dollars to the project.

There may need to be more money. Consultancy Marsh & McLennan has estimated more than 140,000 miles of transmission lines must be installed in the next three decades to meet the nation’s energy needs, at a cost of about $700 billion.

Several of the 20 high-voltage transmission schemes currently under development in the United States face challenges. For example, TransWest Express, a $3 billion line that will deliver wind power to Las Vegas from Wyoming, has been halted by a Federal Conservation Easement. This could prevent its construction.

Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Energy secretary, said that the Biden administration was aware of siting problems for transmission projects. She is also looking into ways the federal government could get involved. “There are an awful lot of lines that have been permitted and that just need that extra push to get over the finish line,” she told reporters on a conference call from the global climate conference in Glasgow.

In 2017, the Maine transmission line was approved after an earlier proposal that passed through New Hampshire was rejected by local opposition. Avangrid already has spent $400million clearing the land and installing poles to support its Maine project, after it received both federal and state permits.

Avangrid declared it will fight for the project, despite the election results and filed swiftly a lawsuit at a Maine Court on Wednesday.

This is not the way.

Bingham’s cluster of worn-out wooden homes, gas stations and wilderness outfitters has been a center of opposition to the NECEC project for months, with many of the buildings posting signs opposing it in their yards. One house hung plywood boards carrying messages in spray paint: “Stop FOREIGN INTRUSION on AMERICAN SOIL,” and “Nothing clean about NECEC.”

The local feel for the opposition is not true to the reality that both corporate interests and the state spent many millions of dollars on their campaigns. It was the most expensive Maine referendum battle ever. U.S. power company NextEra Energy Inc (NYSE:) was one of the major spenders trying to destroy the project.

Even so, local sentiment runs deep.

Joe Dionne (71) worked for the 31-years in local lumber and is now a real estate agent. According to him, the project would create a permanent scarring in the area that could harm his business as well as discourage wilderness tourism.

“They’re just going to flatten that land,” Dionne said. “It doesn’t benefit us at all.”

Asked about whether such projects are needed to fight climate change, Dionne said: “Climate change is a load of B.S.”

Although the Beanes are adamant about climate change, they still oppose any transmission projects.

Evelyn, who is a registered nurse said that the area has provided a tranquil retreat from her busy life in New York City. Bruce, 70 years old, is a retired contractor who sees the unspoiled landscape as a connection to his ancestors, who came here in the days before the American Revolution.

“We know green is important. But this isn’t the way,” said Evelyn.