Answer the following questions giving your opinion because this scenario does not really have a right or wrong answer. (You do not need to research any Maine laws, Maine constitution, specific Maine agencies, etc. to respond to these questions.)

This question involves the CMP transmission line from Canada to Massachusetts that is the subject of great controversy and legal/policy issues.

A. The Maine legislature clearly gave the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) the authority to decide the CMP transmission line application in the State law that established the DEP and its scope of authority. Is the DEP, a Maine executive branch agency with a commissioner appointed by the Governor (and confirmed by the Maine Senate), the appropriate body to make this decision? In other words, are there some crucial decisions that rise to a certain level, that should only be handled by the legislature without delegating authority to an AA? Why or why not? Include a discussion of the fundamental principles of American democracy in your response.

B. One of the major issues currently with the Maine Supreme Court to decide involves the State's Bureau of Parks and Lands which is a division within in the Department of Conservation that executed a lease with CMP for a portion of the land to build the transmission line which happens to be on State (public) land. (The Department of Conservation is an entirely separate executive branch AA from the Department of Environmental Protection; it too is led by a Commissioner appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate)A MaineSuperior Court judge ruled in August that the Department of Conservation, Bureau of Parks and Lands, overstepped its authority when they the leased public lands to Central Maine Power to build thetransmission line through a 0.9 mile swath in the West Forks area. What policy/legal implications arise and how do you handled them, when you have more than one State AA that has jurisdiction over a component of a land use-type application? How should the decision-making authority agency (in this case DEP) handle components of the application where the authority lies with another agency (Dept. of Conservation)?

C. The CMP transmission line controversy has resulted in a citizen initiative that is the most expensive political "campaign" in Maine's history. Should Maine continue to allow citizen initiatives as long as the proper administrative processes and procedures are followed (petitioner gets the thresholder number of signatures; the Maine legislature is allowed to respond/act on the proposal before it goes to referendum; court appeals are permitted, etc.).Should citizen initiatives have additional limitations placed on them? Why or why not? What limitations should be considered? Does limiting citizen initiatives hamper the intent of laws such as FOIA, and the public's right to participate? Why or why not?