Dept. of Energy Selects Team for EIS

The Department of Energy (DOE) has selected an integrated team of professionals from three environmental consulting firms to prepare the DOE Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) addressing the Northern Pass Presidential Permit application. This integrated team is composed of SE Group http://www.segroup.com/, Ecology & Environment http://www.ene.com/, and Lucinda Low Swartz http://www.lucindalowswartz.com/.


A description of the Northern Pass NEPA contractor team is now posted on the EIS website, along with the Memorandum of Understanding and disclosure statements concerning preparation of the EIS.

Northern Pass Postpones "New Route" Announcement

After previously suggesting that it would propose a "new route" from Groveton to Canada for the proposed high-voltage tower and transmission line project, Northern Pass recently indicated that such announcement would not be forthcoming before fall of 2011. Read Chris Jensen's story on NHPR here.

Equally unresolved is what PSNH and Northern Pass might propose to overcome the growing opposition to the proposed project from 33 communities along 140 miles of existing PSNH right-of-way, where the project would require additional towers of greater height and expansion of the existing ROW. Northern Pass has said that they need to expand nearly 19 miles of that existing ROW, and that on average the towers will be highest between Franklin and Deerfield.

Northern Pass Acknowledges Delays

One could argue that the one-year delay in the projected start of construction announced by Northern Pass on their website Aug. 3 is simply a matter of the project managers acknowleging reality given the significant problems with the Presidential Permit process administered by the Dept. of Energy. No doubt Northeast Utlities stockholders, who were told by NU CEO Chuck Shivery in May that they expected to begin construction on Northern Pass in 2013 and complete it in 2015, needed to get a more accurate assessment. As Paula Tracy's article in the Union Leader points out, Northern Pass said long ago that they would be proposing an alternative route by mid-June, but have not yet done so. A reasonable question to ask, however, given the considerable concern over questions of eminent domain, promises by many landowners to fight for their rights in court, and the long list of towns, organizations and elected officials who oppose the project, is whether a mere one-year delay is in any way realistic given that the entire project is in jeopardy.

Union Leader Calls for Alternative Route or Buried Line

In an editorial published July 20, the Union Leader called on Northeast Utilities, PSNH and Hydro-Quebec to reconsider their proposed Northern Pass route and look instead to burying the line or locating it in Vermont--presumably along the exiting HVDC line controlled by competitor National Grid.

According to the Union Leader, The original Northern Pass plan would be the least costly to build and operate, and that is no small concern. But Northeast Utilities and Hydro Quebec will do better in the long run for both themselves and New Hampshire by opting instead for either buried lines in more sensitive areas or an alternative route through Vermont.

Read the full editorial here.

National Grid Proposes New HVDC Corridor Maine to Mass.

On July 11, National Grid, Emera, and First Wind announced preliminary plans for a major new transmission project between northeastern Maine and Massachusetts – the North East Energy Link (NEL), and in doing so clearly suggested that their project had advantages over the NU/N-Star/Hydro-Quebec Northern Pass proposal. Those advantages purportedly include less visual blight thanks to burying the line and greater tax benefits for New Hampshire.

The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests has taken no position on the NEL proposal. The competing NEL transmission proposal does, however, strengthen the arguments for a comprehensive, regional review of current and likely future proposals as called for by the Forest Society, Conservation Law Foundation, Appalachian Mountain Club and others. Read the related op-ed here.

The timing of the NEL proposal also supports the view that these projects are less about renewable energy and more about international energy corporations battling for future market share. The rush to market is on. It also offers a likely, if unacceptable, explanation for why Northeast Utilities and National Grid have not serioiusly discussed the viability of using NG's existing HVDC corridor from Des Cantons, Quebec, to Ayer, MA (through NH) to host the proposed Northern Pass transmission line instead of carving out 40 miles of new corridor and expanding 140 miles of PSNH corridor through New Hampshire.
NEL would be 220 miles of underground, HVDC transmission lines delivering 1100 MW of windpower from northern Maine to southern New England via existing rights of way (primarily) or existing transportation corridors--thought a specific route has not yet been developed., apparently to be sited in existing rights of way and transportation corridors.

Read the complete FERC filing for NEL here.