Northern Pass Summer Update

Jack Savage | September 9, 2016

After a busy summer season, many people are asking us, "What's going on with Northern Pass?" The Forest Society remains committed to fighting the Northern Pass transmission project as proposed. Our position is that Northern Pass should only be built if buried along appropriate transportation corridors, such as I-93. 

 Here's a brief look at the status of the project.

The Site Evaluation Committee

Northern Pass requires a permit from the New Hampshire state Site Evaluation Committee. Originally scheduled for a decision in December 2016, the SEC has postponed its decision deadline to Sept. 30, 2107. SEC decisions (in favor of a permit, opposed to a permit, or in favor of a permit with conditions) can be appealed. Timeline unknown.

The SEC process has been less than smooth, in part because of the sheer size of the application (leading to technical snafus moving data) and in part because of the large number of intervenors.

Over the summer, intervenors submitted requests for data from Northern Pass about various aspects of the proposed line. Northern Pass fulfilled some of those requests, failed to fulfill others, and claimed “confidentiality” of the information for others. Economic data is particularly non-transparent. There is ongoing effort to compel Northern Pass to provide information they are required to provide.

Confidentiality of information is becoming an issue itself, as this Indepth.org story shows.

In August, the Department of Environmental Services, Department of Transportation, and NH Division of Historical Resources were granted motions to postpone deadlines for the analysis each agency must do to inform the SEC process. The new deadlines are six months away. It’s unclear how intervenors will be able to file pre-filed testimony in November (as per the schedule) without that information. If the pre-filed testimony deadline is moved to next spring, it’s unclear how the rest of the process could be completed by Sept. 30, 2017.

Failure to provide information led to various motions to postpone the Technical Sessions that started Sept. 7. (Tech Sessions are not in front of the SEC subcommittee, but are part of the SEC process in which intervenors are given the opportunity to question NP experts.) It’s unclear whether any of those sessions will be postponed, additional sessions will be scheduled, or the motions to suspend denied.

Here’s a blog post from Northern Pass on the Tech Sessions:

The City of Concord,  which would be subject to more visual impact from Northern Pass as proposed than any other community, was not granted sole intervenor status by the SEC, and has appealed that SEC decision to the NH Supreme Court. The Court asked other intervenors to participate in the case if they so desired, which the Counsel for the Public decided to do. It’s unclear how the SEC process can keep going forward without this dispute settled, or without created appealable issues.

Forest Society Lawsuit

As you know, the Forest Society has taken our fight against Northern Pass over property rights to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The Court has accepted the case and set a date of Sept. 28 for our brief to be filed. Northern Pass then has 30 days to respond. No further schedule has been set, and estimates for a final decision/resolution range from 6-18 months.

Federal Permit Process

At the Federal level, the Dept. of Energy has not yet issued a final Environmental Impact Statement, and we may not see that until 2017. The EPA sent a letter to the DOE earlier this summer saying about the northern portion of the proposed line:

"We request that Northern Pass investigate another alternative, which would involve putting the 30-40 miles proposed transmission line on new location, underground, next to existing roadways." And further: "Based on the information in the DEIS and the NP application, EPA concludes that the preferred alternative (Alternative 7) would not pass the alternatives test....Until these issues are adequately addressed, EPA recommends that a permit not be issued for this project."

Similarly, the NH Department of Environmental Services also wrote a letter to the DOE, noting:

“Additional consideration should be given to the burial of the section or sections of line from Canada within existing roadway corridors to the overhead corridor just off of Route 110 in Northumberland. In addition, if moving this section of line to existing roadway corridors is still found to be unreasonable consideration should be given to converting the new overhead transmission corridor to a smaller underground transmission corridor. It is not clear from review of the DEIS why the transmission line is crossing into the United States at the proposed location. What is the basis for choosing the current crossing location? Are there lesser impacting alternatives for the border crossing (e.g., entering the US further south through Vermont along Route 253 to Route 3 in New Hampshire)?”

Southern New England RFPs

Northern Pass has submitted a bid in the “Clean Energy RFP”, which was meant to announce bid winners at the end of July. That decision has been postponed, and latest rumor has it coming out in October.

Massachusetts passed legislation at the end of July to enable another RFP into which Northern Pass could bid (as could other developers, including the New England Clean Power Link in Vermont).

What’s clear from all of this is that Northern Pass electricity is for the southern New England Market primarily, and that ultimately, those consumers would be helping Hydro Quebec pay for the cost of building the line.

PPA

Northern Pass announced a proposed PPA for 10% of Northern Pass power for Eversource NH ratepayers. The NH Public Utilities Commission Consumer Advocate was quoted as calling the PPA as "publicity stunt". 

http://www.concordmonitor.com/Eversource-confidential-power-purchase-agreement-with-Northern-Pass-3405043

Northern Pass in the News

Here's the latest tousle over Eversource seeking to use dollars to try to buy favor for Northern Pass:

http://www.unionleader.com/Voters-First/Gatsas-Sununus-contributions-fr…

Eversource Exec Lee Olivier caused a bit of a stir when he claimed in the 2nd quarter earnings call that Gov. Hassan “was supportive” of Northern Pass. The Gov’s office quickly asked Eversource for clarification. Here’s the story:

http://www.unionleader.com/Eversource-optimistic-on-Northern-Pass-chanc…

Northern Pass continues to buy influence with grants.

You can read a recent op-ed from the Forest Society and AMC here: 

http://commonwealthmagazine.org/environment/mass-should-insist-on-burial-of-nh-power-line/

You may find this article about the PSNH (Eversource NH) divestiture deal of interest:

http://www.nhbr.com/July-22-2016/Northern-Pass-too-big-to-fail/

You may find this perspective helpful:

http://www.nhbr.com/July-22-2016/Northern-Pass-too-big-to-fail/

Finally, you may find this story of interest—there are other ways to address energy issues!

http://mpbn.net/post/transmission-alternatives-could-have-serious-financial-implications-maine-utilities#stream/0