the Northern Pass proposal rallies citizens versus corporations

Northern Pass Transmission is seeking to build tall towers with power lines through 180 miles of New Hampshire to bring more hydroelectricity to New England. 

The proposed project would add renewable energy to the grid, potentially replacing fossil fuels, according to Public Service of New Hampshire. But concerned citizens say the high-voltage lines would fragment natural habitat, devalue property and deter tourism, for the benefit of out-of-state corporations.

Both sides are actively pushing their take on the issue. Pros and cons aside, the debate could all come down to a different kind of power—the financial and political variety. 

The project is backed by a partnership including Northeast Utilities, which operates New England’s largest utility system, serving more than 2 million customers, and of which Public Service of New Hampshire is a subsidiary. It also includes NSTAR, the largest Massachusetts investor-based utility with revenues of approximately $3 billion. That’s a lot of power.

But opponents, who have been laboring to spread awareness about the potential impacts of the project, believe a unified, informed public has its own power.

The proposal starts with 140 miles of high-voltage lines from the Canadian border, carrying electricity from Hydro-Quebec to a converter terminal in Franklin, then another 40 miles to a substation in Deerfield. The firms that want to build the lines would lease them to Hydro-Quebec, which would then sell the electricity into the Northeast’s power pool, starting around 2015.

The companies have applied for a federal permit to cut through White Mountain National Forest, and so, after getting public input, the Department of Energy is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. A draft is expected next summer. The process would also require a state application.

“There are no good things about this for New Hampshire,” said Rick Johnsen, a member of an online group of opponents called Live Free or Fry. He said the proposal turns the state into a “gigantic extension cord down to Connecticut.”

Johnsen was part of a similar debate with National Grid nearly 30 years ago, which spared the North Country from lines that eventually ran through northern Vermont instead.

“I’m not looking forward to this fight,” he said. “I never thought I’d have to do it again.”

Johnsen established the Powerline Education Fund to help cover the cost of materials like lawn signs, banners, and newsletters, which he distributes for free.

“We’re spreading the word,” he said. “The utility companies would like us to keep quiet, but we’re making a lot of noise.”

Meanwhile, the utility companies have two web sites of their own; one is informational while the other is promotional. They’ve launched an extensive advertising campaign online, on television and in print. Johnsen’s group can’t afford nearly as much advertising, and he wonders whether ratepayers will ultimately have to pick up the tab for the utilities’ costly campaign.

The opposition movement started with local meetings at schools to get the word out, build numbers and recruit talented and resourceful people for the cause. It now disseminates information about the cause in numerous ways.

“We continue to raise awareness of the issues amongst residents and visitors to New Hampshire via media, flyers, events, displays etc. and have developed materials and newsletters, email distribution lists, several blogs and websites,” said Northern Pass opponent Valerie Herres. “Communication is very important to us.”

Providing information is still the primary goal, but some opponents recently tried a more creative approach. They floated a big, orange balloon at a height of 135 feet to give people a visual estimate of how tall some of the towers could be. It floated above the tree line.

Herres said opponents have also helped introduce warrant articles at town meetings aimed at deterring the project in more than 30 communities.

Now that there are hundreds of people united against the proposal, Johnsen said, it has become a political issue. Opponents have organized petitions and encouraged letters and calls to government officials.

“If the politicians don’t align themselves with their constituents, they might as well go to Canada,” he said.

New Hampshire citizens do not back away from a fight about public resources, but they don’t always win, either. On the Seacoast, they succeeded in preventing an oil refinery from opening in Durham more than 30 years ago, but failed to block the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant from opening. More recently, residents have continued to fight USA Springs as the bottled water company seeks to tap into an aquifer in Nottingham. That fight’s been going on for 10 years.

Martin Murray, spokesperson with Public Service of New Hampshire, said much of the Northern Pass opposition has been misinformed. He said the company has been open to discussing the project and providing accurate information.

“We’re a regulated company. We don’t deal with innuendo, speculation, rumor or gossip,” he said. “We have to tell the facts.” He said there are some “loud and angry” voices, “but many people support this project.”

The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests stands with opponents against the Northern Pass proposal. The nonprofit organization was integral in the passage of the Weeks Act a century ago this year, and the creation of White Mountain National Forest.

Forest Society spokesperson Jack Savage said concerned citizens have “without question” made themselves heard. He said Gov. John Lynch initially spoke in favor of the project but has recently made it clear that it should not go forward without community support.

“The permitting process is stacked up against them. There’s no vote here. No veto power,” he said. “It’s a matter of exerting political pressure.”

Former state senator Burt Cohen of New Castle has also spoken out against the proposal.

“Democrats really must find the courage to stand with the people of the North Country on this,” he said, calling the issue a classic David versus Goliath situation where the common good is up against large, wealthy corporations.

“Once again, the big guys intend to own all the power. And not just electric power,” Cohen wrote in a letter to the New Hampshire Business Review. “It is a question of power, both electric and political.”

There are also questions about whether the state government will use eminent domain to confiscate private property for the project. Herres said opponents are closely following House Bill 648, which would restrict the use of eminent domain by utility companies. It passed the N.H. House of Representatives this year but is still under review by a Senate committee.

Murray said the utilities do not anticipate using eminent domain.

“We have not requested the use of eminent domain,” he said, adding it is “too early to say” whether or not its use is a possibility.

The utilities already have use of a right of way between Groveton and Deerfield and don’t need any more land along that part of the route, Murray said. He added there is an 18-mile section where they could install lower towers for aesthetic purposes. 

Murray said the company intends to pay for any property it needs, either by owning the rights to use it or leasing it with an easement. “We are in the midst of talking to landowners,” he said.

Talks with landowners “didn’t go so well” in the North Country, he added. They are looking into possible new routes that might garner more support from residents.

But Johnsen is not convinced the powerful utilities won’t resort to eminent domain if they have to. “If they get a foothold, they will march down the state, trampling people,” he said. “(The North Country) is the battleground. The problem is stopping them up here.”

He said some people might be tempted to sell their land to utilities, but most would rather have something to pass on to the next generation.

“You need to buy oil and groceries and don’t make a lot to begin with, but you’ve got your land,” he said. “People don’t make a lot of money up here, but they love what they have.”

He said the Northern Pass plan would decimate the North Country by clearing trees in a right of way 400 feet wide to put up towers.

Savage said the project would fragment 10 miles of national forest and impact thousands of acres.

“It’s a new, private, commercial development on existing, public, conserved lands,” he said.
The Forest Society strongly objects to this kind of construction on the state’s most scenic landscapes.

“The visual impact is real,” Savage said. Not only would it be “astoundingly ugly,” but it would have a negative economic impact on property values and tourism, he said.

Savage said there may be other ways to bring hydroelectricity to the New England market, such as burying the cables along existing transportation corridors where the roads have already changed the land. Johnsen and others are advocating the option of burying the line as an alternative, if the project continues, at all.

But Murray said the companies don’t think buried lines would “make sense” for this project.

“People seem to think it would be better because they won’t see it,” he said. “But it has much more of environmental impact.” He said it would disturb the entire environment, potentially cutting through granite, wetlands and wooded areas. 

An underground line would be more expensive and more complicated to repair, he also noted.

Another concern of opponents is the possibility of losing existing or future green energy sources at home to cheaper, imported energy, Johnsen said. The proposal gives some control over our electricity to another country, he said.

Murray said the project is not seeking to meet renewable portfolio standards and so would not compete with existing energy providers that already fill those requirements.

The New England Power Generators Association recently announced that competition from Northern Pass would be detrimental to the members of its trade group, but Murray said that’s good for customers. He agreed the project could cause some members to take a financial hit if it produces cheaper energy, and “rightly so.”

Murray also noted that some members of the New England Power Generators Association are large corporations owned overseas. “Not many people know who owns power plants in New Hampshire,” he said.

The visibility of the towers is the primary concern to people whose livelihood is dependent on the natural beauty of the area, like Lon Henderson, innkeeper of Sunset Hill House.

Henderson said there are already power lines visible from Sugar Hill, but the poles are wooden and the wires are mostly hidden by tree branches. The new towers could be twice as tall and mounted on high spots so the cables can stretch farther. 

“I expect they will be prominently visible, at least seasonally, from the golf course and the top floor of the Sunset Hill House,” he wrote in an email.

He said the North Country is in an economic slump even worse than the rest of the state, and its natural beauty is the only resource it has left. 

“I hear no discussion of any kind of reimbursement to adjacent landowners who will see their view compromised at some level with a subsequent loss in value to their properties,” he said.

He said the original grantors of the right of way never envisaged such a massive industrial corridor, which would “likely define Sugar Hill almost as much as our world class views of the White Mountains.”

Johnsen said tourists aren’t going to travel to see power lines and the local economy is going to suffer.

Murray said the towers in the North Country would be 80 to 90 feet tall, which is a third of the height of wind turbines proposed in other projects on mountain tops.

But, Savage says, “There’s no need to do this.” And Johnsen agrees.

“There is no electrical emergency. If there was, people would cut down their own trees on their own land with their own skidders,” Johnsen said. “If America needed something, they’d be right there.”
Murray said, for security reasons, it’s important to have more energy supply than demand in case some sources fail.

New England’s electricity use actually dropped as a result of the recession and conservation efforts, but it is slowly climbing again.

An additional 1,200 megawatts of power is not needed “day to day,” he said, but would instead replace the same amount currently being produced by other means.

Murray said the project would save New Englanders more than $200 million per year by putting cheaper elecricity into the grid and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 5 million tons per year, according to a study by the Charles River Associates.

Plans call for the project to support about 1,200 temporary jobs during the two-year construction process. He said the utilities will seek the most capable workers, using local talent when possible. Once the line is in place, though, it won’t require much attention.

Though the jobs are temporary, the towns affected by the project would be able to collect an estimated $25 million per year in property taxes altogether.

Other companies are also looking to add to New England’s supply. For instance, the NortheastEnergy Link is in the preliminary permitting process for an underground transmission project that would stretch approximately 220 miles from northern Maine to northeastern Massachusetts by 2016. It’s a project of National Grid and Bangor Hydro intended for renewable generators.

Savage said there are at least two other proposals in the works, one considering burying under railroad beds and another under the ocean.

“Everybody in New Hampshire should take an interest in this,” he said. “Unless we plan this right, we could have towers all over the place.”

Information about Northern Pass is online at www.northernpass.us. More on the opposition movement is available at www.livefreeorfry.org.