Northern Pass's Work is Not Done
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The Forest Society owns land and holds conservation easements in Coos County that are directly impacted by the current proposal for Northern Pass before the Site Evaluation Committee. As we have noted in other forums, we have a legal and ethical obligation to defend our conserved lands.
We also have a long history of protecting the scenic views in New Hampshire, and our opposition to Northern Pass as proposed is based in part on the permanent scars that would be cut across 132 miles of the state, including the proposed new corridor through northern Coos County.
These landscape scars are simply unnecessary, and would be completely avoided if NP decided to completely bury the entire project along appropriate transportation corridors. If Hydro-Quebec and Eversource want to partner on what is a private, merchant transmission line through New Hampshire, a transmission line they agree is not needed to keep the lights on, the State of New Hampshire should make clear that scarring our greatest natural assets is an option that is not on the table.
The current proposal includes burying an underground stretch in Clarksville, through land we own. It also involves burial of over 7 miles along municipal roads in Clarksville and Stewartstown, through privately owned lands on which the Forest Society holds conservation easements that prohibit above or below ground transmission lines. Truth be told, NP is not proposing this 8 miles of burial because they somehow got religion about landscape conservation. Rather, they propose this 8 miles of burial because there is no other way to connect the dots for what was originally intended as an entirely above ground project. The Forest Society has no intention of allowing our Washburn Family Forest in Clarksville to facilitate 132 miles of new overhead lines that would create avoidable scars on landscapes.
Because the SEC is not authorized to resolve property rights disputes --- only the NH Superior Court can do this --- we have filed a petition in Coos County Superior Court to defend our property rights in Clarksville.
As Attorney Iacapino noted in his presentation, there are four findings the SEC must make before it can decide whether or not to issue a certificate of site and facility. We have filed a motion to intervene, and we plan to litigate the NP application as proposed. We believe it fails to meet even the minimum thresholds for three of the four required findings. And the SEC only needs to find that one of the four thresholds is not satisfied in order to say NO to an application. On the fourth finding, we don’t contest that NP has the financial and technical capacity to build what they propose. In fact, we believe they have the financial and technical capacity to do more than what they propose --- they can design and build a completely buried line.
Northern Pass has taken a step in the right direction by adopting HVDC light technology and acknowledging that burial is possible through the White Mountains. Earlier this evening Mr. Quinlan acknowledged the broad public concern about scenic impacts and said that their work is not yet done in this regard.
We would heartily agree. The only difference is that we believe the only way to refine the current design is to completely bury the line.